OBJECTIVETo analyze the prognostic factors affecting the disease-free survival in T1/T2N0M0-staged patients with squamous cell carcinoma of tongue and compare the effectiveness of different neck treatment modalities.

METHODS97 consecutive patients with early-staged squamous cell carcinoma of tongue were included in this study. The treatment and following-up records were reviewed retrospectively. Cox proportional hazard model was used to identify the statistically significant prognostic factors in the 6 potential factors. Kaplan-Meier method was used to estimate the disease-free survival and analyze the survival rate among the different levels, and log-rank method for comparison of the different distribution of the survival. A special focus was on the effectiveness of different neck treatment modalities.

RESULTST stage, treatment methods of primary tumor, the modalities of neck treatment and cell differentiation were statistically significant prognostic factors. The value of P and relative risk (RR) were P < 0.001, RR = 4.387; P = 0.04, RR = 0.496; P = 0.003, RR = 0.504; P < 0.001, RR = 2.620, respectively. The difference of disease-free survival was statistically significant among the different levels under the different factors.

CONCLUSIONThe disease-free survival was affected by neck treatment modalities remarkably in cN0 stage patients. Selected neck dissection together with adjuvant irradiation could decrease the recurrence risk by 49.6% according to the results of this study. TNM stage system could describe the characteristics of the patients with early-staged squamous cell carcinoma of tongue reasonably.