Assistant Professor of Surgery,Malla Reddy Institute of Medical Sciences, Suraram, Hyderabad, Telangana, India.

Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Malla Reddy Institute of Medical Sciences, Suraram, Hyderabad, Telangana, India.

Professor & HOD of Community Medicine, Malla Reddy Institute of Medical Sciences, Suraram, Hyderabad, Telangana, India.
Metastatic cancer ,Cervical lymphadenopathy ,Pathological study ,

One of the most important prognostic indicator in any patient with squamous cell cancer of the head and neck is presence or absence of cervical metastasis. Once the patient has neck node metastases the survival drops almost to half. Identifying the presence of node metastasis and treating it appropriately is crucial to the final outcome. Squamous cell carcinomas of the upper aerodigestive tract metastasize primarily through lymphatics to the lymph nodes of the neck. The material for the present study comprises cases of lymphnode enlargement in malignant lesions mainly of head and neck. One hundred cases were studied in detail which includes the relevant symptoms, significant findings, appropriate investigations and treatment. The cases concerned are from various surgical wards (ENT, surgical oncology, General surgery) and medical wards of the Kasturba Medical College Hospital, Manipal. The cases from pediatric age group were not included in this study because it is rather very uncommon to have cervical secondaries in that age group. 100 cases of malignant cervical lymph nodes were studied. The age ranged between 19 years to 80 years. Pediatric patients were not included in this study. The male to female ratio was 7:3. This study has surveyed most of the factors considered to have any relevance to the disease. Particularly strong correlations were discovered between prevalence of oral cancer and the use of tobacco especially for chewing and smoking. Of the 100 cases studied 33% patients had malignancy of the oral cavity, 14% had primary of the oropharynx and 15% had hypopharynx primary and 3% had primary of the Nasopharynx. Commonest mode of presentation was neck swelling and pain in the oro-pharynx.

5 , 10 , 2015