Introduction: In Vietnam in general and at the Ho Chi Minh City Oncology Hospital in particular, there is still no study evaluating the role of prophylactic neck dissection in the management of oral tongue cancer and evaluating the characteristics of the occult nodal metastases in patients with squamous carcinoma of the oral tongue, predisposing factors. Objectives: 1. To estimate the rate of occult nodal metastases in patients with squamous carcinoma of the oral tongue in oral tongue cancer patients with clinical negative lymph nodes. 2. To investigate the relationship between some clinicopathologic factors and the occult cervical nodal metastases in patients with oral tongue cancer. Materials and Methods: Descriptive retrospective study. Result: In this study, the proportion of metastases to particular levels was the following: 20%-I, 80%-II, 20%-III, 6.6% in IV and with total patient the proportion of metastases was the following: 4,8%-I, 19,4%-II, 4,8%-III, 19,6% in IV. The proportion of occult metastasis was 24.2%. On multivariate analysis, WPOI-5 was an independent prognostic factor. Clinical and histological parameters such as DOI on CT, histological grade, and DOI on pathology also showed significant correlation with risk of LN metastasis, but are not strong enough to be independent prognostic factor. The DOI values measured on CT as well as on the gross pathology have a strong correlation with the DOI value on pathology. Conclusion: The proportion of occult metastasis was 24.2%, the proportion of metastases in levels I, II, III, IV was 20%, 80%, 20%, 6.6%, respectively. Clinical and histological parameters showed significant correlation with risk of LN metastasis are DOI on CT, histological grade, DOI on pathology, WPOI-5 (independent prognostic factor). DOI on CT and DOI on gross pathology are strongly correlated with DOI on pathology. DOI: 10.59715/pntjmp.3.2.21