Patterns of EBV-positive cervical lymph node involvement in head and neck cancer and implications for the management of nasopharyngeal carcinoma T0 classification

摘要

Objectives: Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-positive cervical lymph node (CLN) metastasis of unknown primary origin is classified as nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) T0 by the American Joint Committee on Cancer staging manual (8th edition). We aimed to investigate the possible primary sites and patterns of EBV-positive CLN metastases and to provide implications for the management of NPC T0 classification.