Retropharyngeal lymph node metastases from oral cancer: a report of 2 patients.

The prognosis is extremely poor for patients with head and neck cancers involving the lateral retropharyngeal (RP) lymph nodes.(1-4) The literature contains very few reports concerning RP node metastases from oral cancers, because the majority deal with pharyngeal cancers.(1-5,6) We report and document 2 cases with RP node metastases from oral squamous cell carcinomas (SCC) observed during a recent 10-year period.