Evaluation and Correlation of Clinicopathological Parameters of Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma of Gingivobuccal Sulcus with Lymph Node Status - A Retrospective Institutional Analysis in Navi Mumbai

Abstract

BACKGROUND Mortality and Morbidity rates in the patients diagnosed with oral cancers remain static despite availability of advanced diagnostic and treatment modalities. For improving the survival status of the patients, a thorough understanding of the factors that predicts the progression of oral cancer is necessary to determine appropriate line of treatment. To do so in practise, critical knowledge regarding the prognostic factors that has high sensitivity holds immense importance. For determination of prognosis in oral cancer patients, clinical and histopathological parameters are widely used for assessment of treatment strategies. The primary objective of this study was to determine the clinical and histopathological prognostic factors in patients of oral squamous cell carcinoma of gingivobuccal sulcus (GBSSCC) treated by surgical intervention (neck dissection). METHODS Histopathological evaluation of archived samples of 60 GBSSCC patients which were treated by surgical intervention (Neck Dissection) in the time period from January 2011 to December 2020. Recurrent cases were excluded. Clinicopathological parameters such as age, sex, habit, tumour site, tumour size, tumour differentiation, depth of invasion, bone invasion, muscle invasion, perineural invasion & extracapsular spread were evaluated & then correlated with lymphnode status. RESULTS Among all the parameters, variables like habit (tobacco use) (P = 0.045), tumour size (P = 0.003), perineural invasion (P = 0.000) emerged as independent prognosticators and significantly correlated to the lymph node status of the patients. CONCLUSIONS This analysis suggests that habit, tumour size, perineural invasion to be consistent, easy to assess and reliable independent prognosticators which are significantly correlated to the lymph node status. To conclude, it is of paramount importance to include the aforementioned prognosticators in histopathological reports for the prediction of clinical outcome and archiving of valued data for future analysis. KEY WORDS Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma, Gingivobuccal sulcus, Lymph Node Status, ClinicoPathological Prognosticators