Ho AS, et al. - This study aimed at determining the independent impact of quantitative metastatic lymph node (LN) burden on mortality risk in hypopharyngeal and laryngeal cancers. They recognized the number of metastatic nodes as a predominant independent factor associated with mortality. Furthermore, when accounting for positive LN number, standard nodal staging factors like LN size and contralaterality have no independent prognostic value. Deeper understanding of quantitative metastatic nodal disease could simplify staging and better triage the need for adjuvant therapy.