Sentinel node biopsy in squamous cell cancer of the oral cavity and oral pharynx: a diagnostic meta-analysis. Head Neck 2005;27:739–747

Background. The sentinel node biopsy concept has been gaining support in the head and neck cancer literature during only the last few years, and several pilot studies have been published. This procedure aims to avoid unnecessary treatment to the clinically negative neck by identifying the patients with occult neck disease. Methods. We performed a systematic review and a diag-nostic meta-analysis of all published literature regarding sentinel node biopsies in head and neck cancer until December 2003 using established guidelines. Using the pooled sensitivity rates obtained from the meta-analysis and treatment outcomes from published literature, we created a decision analysis model to identify the treatment arm with better payoffs. Results. A total of 301 patients with oral cavity primary tumors and 46 patients with oropharyngeal primary tumors