Head and neck soft tissue sarcomas: unique lack of significance of synchronous node metastases.

Background: Regional lymph node metastasis (RLNM) has been identified as a poor prognostic indicator for patients with soft tissue sarcomas (STS) of the extremities and trunk. However, the effect of RLNM on survival in patients with STS of the head and neck (HN) has not previously been explored. Our objective was to analyze RLNM as a prognostic indicator in HN-STS, and to compare this cohort to patients with STS of non-head and neck regions (NHN-STS).

Methods: STS patients were identified using the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database. Only patients without concurrent distant metastasis who underwent surgery and pathologic node staging were included. Patients were categorized based on tumor location: (1) HN-STS and (2) NHN-STS. Clinicopathologic data and disease-specific survival (DSS) were compared between node-negative and node-positive patients in each group.

Results: We identified 183 cases of node-positive STS (25 HN-STS, 158 NHN-STS). In the HN-STS group, pN1 status was not associated with any of the clinicopathologic factors that we analyzed. DSS was similar among pN0 and pN1 patients with HN-STS (P = 0.59); however, in the NHN-STS group, node-positivity was significantly associated with disease-specific mortality (P < 0.001).

Conclusions: Synchronous RLNM may not affect DSS in patients HN-STS. Node-positive patients with HN-STS appear to be unique from those with NHN-STS.