The first nationwide trial evaluating elective neck dissection for early stage oral cancer (SEND study), has been published.
Commenting on the publication, British Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery (BAOMS) chair, Patrick Magennis, said: “This open access paper funded by charity Saving Faces and Cancer Research UK (CRUK) is groundbreaking. OMFS cancer surgeons from all over the UK were involved in the study, and BAOMS is proud that this research was completed and published.
“The study was possible because of a unique collaboration between 55 UK-based surgeons treating 714 patients at 26 UK hospitals. The research compared leaving or taking out neck glands that did not have obvious secondary cancers at the same time as removing the patient’s small mouth cancer. OMFS know that between 20 and 30 in every 100 patients with small mouth cancers have tiny microscopic cancer deposits in their neck glands that can’t be picked up by any scanners. Now OMFS have the evidence about the risks and benefits of removing the neck glands in early mouth cancer. This information will help patients participate in decisions about their treatment.
“To mis-quote John F Kennedy in this the 50th anniversary year of the moon landings, OMFS surgeons want to do randomised surgical trials ‘not because they are easy, but because they are hard; because that goal will serve to organise and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone’.
“This paper is a credit to all involved.”
Nationwide randomised trial evaluating elective neck dissection for early stage oral cancer (SEND study) with meta-analysis and concurrent real-world cohort published in the British Journal of Cancer is available to read here.
