Patients with early squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of the oral cavity are treated by either surgery or radiotherapy. By either method, biopsy is routinely performed to determine malignancy. However, an incision into the neoplasm could enhance its spreading or could even increase malignancy. From this point of view, chemotherapy prior to biopsy has been performed to prevent neck metastasis caused by spreading of cancer cells due to biopsy.
To evaluate the effect of chemotherapy before biopsy on the incidence of neck metastasis in early cancers, 68 patients with stage I and II oral SCC were relrospectively studied. These patients were divided into three groups : group A, 33 patients without chemotherapy ; group B, 11 patients with chemotherapy following biopsy ; group C, 24 patients with chemotherapy prior to biopsy. Secondary neck metastasis was found in 30.3% (10/33) of group A, 18.2% (2/11) of group B, and 8.3% (2/24) of group C. respectively. Thus the mean survival rate was 78.8% in group A, 90.9% in group B, and 91.7% in group C.