Population-based comparative survival analysis of surgery with or without adjuvant radiotherapy and non-operative primary radiotherapy in patients with early-stage oral tongue squamous cell carcinoma.

In the contemporary treatment era, the use of radiotherapy as a definitive treatment resulted in an inferior prognosis in patients with T1‒2N0 oral tongue squamous cell carcinoma. The present population-based data suggest that primary radiotherapy cannot be used as an alternative to surgical management and it needs to be avoided as much as possible in early-stage tumors.