Utility and Cost-effectiveness of Microscopic Examination of the Neck Dissection.

Overview

Most patients with cancer of the head and neck are offered surgical resection of the primary tumor. In order to determine how the tumor will eventually behave, along with the resection of the primary tumor, lymph nodes present in the neck are also dissected. Different institutes have different protocol on handling of the specimen that is received by the pathology labs after dissection of the neck. The investigators intend to analyze the protocol that they use to evaluate the neck dissection specimen.

This will be a retrospective study. All neck dissections received in the histology laboratory from Jan 2013 to December 2016 will be retrieved from the histopathology files by conducting a search through CoPath. The glass slides of all the neck dissections that fit the study criterion will be retrieved from the archives. The glass slides will be reviewed by the pathologist. At the time of review number of lymph nodes identified microscopically, presence or absence of metastasis and if the Lymph Nodes (LN) were palpable or not palpable will be documented. The data will be analyzed to see if the submission of extra fat yielded any additional positive lymph nodes or microscopic deposits. The cost analysis for additional slides will be also done.

Conditions

Interventions

Eligibility

Locations (1)

Outcomes