A multi-institutional dataset on patient-individual lymph node involvement in hypopharyngeal and laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma

We present three curated datasets on lymphatic spread patterns in laryngeal and hypopharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (SCC), based on patients treated at the University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG) between 2007 and 2023, the University Hospital Zurich (USZ) between 2013 and 2021 and the Freiburg University Hospital (UKF) between 2011 and 2019. They include comprehensive data on primary tumor characteristics, lymphatic progression patterns, and relevant clinicopathological factors such as age, sex, HPV status, tumor subsite and lateralization, and TNM classification. In total, the datasets comprise 1403 newly diagnosed patients, with lymph node metastases assessed per lymph node level (LNL) through imaging and, if available, fine needle aspiration (FNA) or histopathology after neck dissection. The data were acquired during routine clinical care. Structured in tabular form (CSV file) with one row per patient, the dataset enables analysis of spread patterns and correlations between involvements of different LNLs in laryngeal and hypopharyngeal SCC. It is provided in a standardized human- and machine-readable format alongside a Python library for accessing and manipulating the data, making analyses straightforward. Further, it can be interactively explored using the graphical user interface at LyProX.org and compared to earlier datasets from different institutions that report patterns of lymphatic progression for other primary tumor locations in the head & neck.