Abstract: Objective: To evaluate the impact of cervical metastasis on the prognosis of patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the hard palate.Methods:We reviewed the data of 127 cases of squamous cell carcinoma of the hard palate treated in our hospital between 1964 and 2004. Kaplan-Meier method and the log-rank test were used to analyze the im-pact of cervical lymph node metastasis and N-stage on patient survival. Results: The 5-year disease-specific survival rate of patients with cervical lymph node metastasis (49cases) was17.59% and that of patients without cervical lymph node meta-tasis ( 78cases ) was 39.55% (P=0.043 ). The 5-year disease-specific survival rates were 39.55%,22.79%,10.48%, and0 for N0, N1, N2 and N 3 lesions, respectively ( P=0.037 ). Cervical lymph node metastasis was found in 38.58% (49cases) of pa-tients with hard palate squamous cell carcinoma at first diagnosis. Of those who were not found with cervical lymph node metastasis at diagnosis, 11cases (8.66% ) were detected with cervical lymph node metastasis after therapy.Conclusion: Cervical lymph node metastasis is associated with low survival rate in patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the hard palate. Advanced N-stage is correlated with poor prognosis. Squamous cell carcinoma of the hard palate should be treated aggressively, and elective neck dissection should be considered because of the high rate of cervical metastasis.