however , the marked tendency for carcinoma of the tongue to metastasize regionally at some time in its course , the significant error in clinical evaluation of the neck , the significant conversion of clinically negative nodes to positive in patients not treated with radical neck dissection , the poor prognosis after treatment of conversion from clinically negative into positive and the fact that more than half of the deaths are due to uncontrolled disease of the neck alone , make us strongly favor the principle of elective radical neck dissection to enhance the survival time in the group of patients without clinical evidence of nodal involvement .
C0027530
neck
C0034542
radical neck dissection