Axillary metastases from recurrent oral carcinoma

The rationale for surgical treatment of head and neck cancer is based on a predictable pattern of metastasis. There is aberrant or unpredictable spread rarely and typically only in recurrent disease. There are few published reports to our knowledge of axillary metastases from squamous cell cancer (SCC) of the head and neck. We present a patient who developed axillary node disease on the other side after recurrence of a squamous cell carcinoma of the floor of the mouth. She died 11 months after excision of the recurrence.