BACKGROUND: The benefit of postoperative radiotherapy (PORT) for early squamous cell carcinoma of the tongue (SCCOT) with pathologic N1 disease remains unclear. METHODS: The medical records of all patients with pathologic T1-2/N0-1 SCCOT who underwent wide excision of the primary tumor and neck dissection between 1980 and 2002 were reviewed. RESULTS : There were 59 patients analyzed, including 28 patients with and 31 patients without PORT. The 5-year disease-free survival rates were 81.2% and 53% for the patients with and without PORT, respectively (p = .03). The overall 5-year survival rates were 77% and 70.5% for the patients with and without PORT, respectively (p = .36). Multivariate analyses showed that PORT had the only protective effect (p = .01) and extracapsular spread (ECS) was the only significantly adverse factor for locoregional recurrence (p = .03). CONCLUSIONS: Approximately one-third of the patients who received only surgery had locoregional recurrence. PORT significantly improved the disease-free survival. ; 附設醫院耳鼻喉部 ; 醫學院附設醫院 ; 期刊論文