Elective neck treatment in sinonasal undifferentiated carcinoma: Systematic review and meta‐analysis
Muhammad Faisal, Rudolf Seemann, Claudia Lill, Sasan Hamzavi, Arno Wutzl, Boban M. Erovic, Stefan Janik
Abstract
Sinonasal undifferentiated carcinomas (SNUCs), being an aggressive malignancy with dismal survival outcome, have given limited consideration regarding management of regional failures. A total of 12 studies, published between 1999 and 2019, met inclusion criteria. We performed a meta-analysis assessing regional (neck) relapse after elective neck treatment compared to observation in clinically node negative (N0) necks. Clinical data of 255 patients were used for meta-analysis. Among them, 83.4% of patients presented with T4 tumors and 14.1% had positive neck nodes. Elective neck treatment was applied in 49.5% of analyzed patients. Regional relapses occurred in 3.7% of patients who have undergone elective neck treatment compared to 26.4% in patients who had not. Elective neck treatment significantly reduced the risk of regional recurrence (odds ratio 0.20; 95% confidence interval 0.08-0.49; P = .0004). The meta-analysis indicates that elective neck treatment could significantly reduce the risk of regional failures in patients with SNUCs.