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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Oral. Health
Sec. Oral Cancers
Volume 5 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/froh.2024.1426709
This article is part of the Research Topic Incidence, Mortality, and Risk Factors for Oral Cancers View all 3 articles

Histopathologic Predictors of Recurrence and Survival in Early T Stage Oral Tongue Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Provisionally accepted
Benjamin J. Damazo Benjamin J. Damazo 1*Nihal Punjabi Nihal Punjabi 1,2*Yuan F. Liu Yuan F. Liu 1*Jared C. Inman Jared C. Inman 1*
  • 1 Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery, Loma Linda University, Loma Linda, California, United States
  • 2 School of Medicine, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Objectives: Recurrence and survival in early T-stage oral tongue squamous cell carcinoma (OTSCC) may be impacted by histopathologic risk factors. This study aims to examine which of these factors predict long-term outcomes of T1 and T2 OTSCC.A retrospective review of T1 and T2 OTSCC patients treated with surgery at a single tertiary care center was conducted. Multivariate regression and Kaplan-Meier survival plots were used to identify predictors of recurrence and compare disease-free survival respectively.Results: 100 consecutive patients were studied. Of these, 51 were staged pT1, 49 pT2, 69 pN0, 10 pN1, and 21 pN2. Multivariate regression analysis revealed that >4 nodes was the strongest predictor of overall recurrence (odds ratio 1.68 [1.23-2.28], p =0.001), while >4 nodes (odds ratio 1.14 [1.09-1.85], p =0.008) and pT2 (odds ratio 1.15 [1.01-1.30], p =0.033) were predictors of local recurrence (R2 = 0.112). Five-year disease-free survival was not significantly impacted by any risk factors except for the number of positive nodes -86% for ≤4 nodes versus 20% for >4 nodes (p <0.001)and pathologic T-stage -90% for pT1 versus 75% for pT2 (p =0.035) regardless of adjuvant radiation and/or chemotherapy use.Patients who underwent adjuvant radiation and/or chemotherapy had similar survival to those who did not despite having worse overall tumor prognostic factors. Adding adjuvant therapy may equalize some high-risk histopathologic factors. In the highest risk patients -specifically those with pathologic >4 nodes and pT2 staging -adjuvant therapy should be considered.

    Keywords: head and neck, Recurrence, Squamous cell carcinoma, Radiotherapy, Cancer

    Received: 02 May 2024; Accepted: 25 Jul 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Damazo, Punjabi, Liu and Inman. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Benjamin J. Damazo, Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery, Loma Linda University, Loma Linda, 92350, California, United States
    Nihal Punjabi, School of Medicine, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, United States
    Yuan F. Liu, Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery, Loma Linda University, Loma Linda, 92350, California, United States
    Jared C. Inman, Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery, Loma Linda University, Loma Linda, 92350, California, United States

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.