Oral Cancer in the Indian Subcontinent-Survival Outcomes and Risk Factors with Primary Surgery

Perimarginal quadrangle dissection: Pushing the boundaries of neck dissection in gingivo-buccal complex cancer

OBJECTIVES

Perimarginal nodes (PMN) lie in close relationship with marginal mandibular nerve (MMN), in the lymphatic drainage pathway of gingivo-buccal cancers (GBC), above the lower border of mandible and remain unaddressed in conventional neck dissection. We have aimed to define the boundaries of perimarginal node dissection, explore incidence of PMN metastasis and its correlation with histopathological characteristics.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

A prospective study was conducted on 112 consecutive patients of GB carcinoma. PMN dissection was performed in an anatomically defined quadrangle. Prospective clinical characteristics included subsite, tumor and nodal stage, location of primary and clinical skin involvement. Histopathological characteristics analyzed included grade, size, pathological tumor, nodal stage, skin and/or bone involvement, depth of invasion, Brandwein Gensler histological risk score and lympho-vascular emboli. MMN function was graded at 3 and 6 months post-operatively.

RESULTS

The PMN were identified histologically in 75.89 % patients. 15.2 % patients harboured metastasis in PMN. 16.7 % patients had clinically occult metastasis with 11.7 % having isolated PMN metastasis. None of the pre-operative clinical factors was found to be significant in predicting incidence of metastasis. Higher nodal burden (p = 0.01) and pathological skin involvement (p = 0.03) were found statistically significant on multivariable analysis. At 6 months follow-up, none of the patients had any MMN functional deformity at rest.

CONCLUSION

There is a high incidence of occult PMN metastasis from gingivo-buccal complex cancer. High nodal stage and pathological skin involvement are independent predictors for PMN metastasis. PMN dissection must be performed in all cases of GB cancer.

Patterns of Discordance Between Clinical and Pathologic Stage in Head and Neck Cancer

OBJECTIVE

To enhance understanding in patterns of discordance between clinical and pathological T and N staging in multiple sites of head and neck squamous cell cancer.

METHODS

A retrospective cohort of 580 newly diagnosed and surgically treated head and neck squamous cell carcinoma patients from a single institution over a 10-year period are presented. Clinical and pathologic staging are compared.

RESULTS

Notably, 33% of cases had staging discordance. Overall Cohen's kappa agreement was κ = 0.55 (moderate agreement). Highly discordant site stages with κ < 0.45 included: T2 oral cavity, T2 oropharynx, T3 larynx, and N1 lymph node. T2-4 oral cavity cancers were often overstaged, and more than one-third of T3 larynx cancers were understaged. Highly concordant site stages with κ>0.65 included: T1 larynx, T4 oropharynx, N0 lymph node, and N3 lymph node.

CONCLUSION

There exists a quantifiable and, in certain sites, clinically relevant pattern of discordance between clinical and pathologic staging. Tumor board multidisciplinary evaluation can highlight these discrepancies and aide in limiting effects on treatment decisions. However, discordant staging can affect the interpretation and application of prognostication, treatment, and data accuracy. Further investigation is warranted to improve clinical staging accuracy in areas of highest discordance.

LEVEL OF EVIDENCE

3 Laryngoscope, 134:4284-4291, 2024.

"Survival patterns and prognostic factors of gingivobuccal complex squamous cell cancer: A monocentric retrospective chart audit"

OBJECTIVE

To analyze the impact of clinico-pathological prognostic factors on survival in patients with GBC OSCC. To evaluate the association between various clino-pathological and treatment factors influencing the 3-year and 5-year Overall survival (OS), and Disease specific survival (DSS) in patients with lower GBC OSCC.

PATIENTS & METHODS

An Institutional Ethical Committee (IEC) approved retrospective chart audit was performed. Biopsy proven squamous cell cancer of gingivobuccal complex (GBC OSCC) patients from 2010 to 2019 who were treated primarily with surgery with or without adjuvant therapy having complete clinicopathological and follow up data were included. Survival outcomes including 2-year, 3-year & 5-year OS, and DSS were calculated and analyzed. A multivariate analysis was performed to identify significant predictor for the survival outcomes. A p-value < 0.05 was considered significant.

RESULTS

183 patients with primary OSCC were identified out of which 83 patients comprised of OSCC of lower GBC. Age (p < 0.001), tumor grade (p = 0.009), pN status (p = 0.002), PNI (p < 0.001), lymph node metastasis (p = 0.002), treatment given (p = 0.02) and adjuvant therapy (p = 0.02) were found as a significant prognostic factor in univariate analysis.

CONCLUSION

The OS & DSS of the patients with lower GBC SCC is 78.3%. The 2-year, 3-year, and 5-year OS of the study population was reported to be 95.2%, 87.9%, and 78.8% respectively. PNI & lymph node metastasis were significant prognostic factor for OS with an adjusted hazard ratio 4.91 and 7.75 respectively.

Can interventional radiotherapy (brachytherapy) be an alternative to surgery in early-stage oral cavity cancer? A systematic review

PURPOSE

Brachytherapy (BT), also known as interventional radiotherapy (IRT), has proven its utility in the treatment of localized tumors. The aim of this review was to examine the efficacy of modern BT in early-stage oral cavity cancer (OCC) in terms of local control (LC), overall survival (OS), disease-free survival (DFS), cancer-specific survival (CSS), and safety.

METHODS

The SPIDER framework was used, with sample (S), phenomena of interest (PI), design (D), evaluation (E), and research type (R) corresponding to early-stage oral cavity cancer (S); BT (PI); named types of qualitative data collection and analysis (D); LC, OS, DFS, CSS, and toxicity (E); qualitative method (R). Systematic research using PubMed and Scopus was performed to identify full articles evaluating the efficacy of BT in patients with early-stage OCC. The studies were identified using medical subject headings (MeSH). We also performed a PubMed search with the keywords "brachytherapy oral cavity cancer, surgery." The search was restricted to the English language. The timeframe 2002-2022 as year of publication was considered. We analyzed clinical studies of patients with OCC treated with BT alone only as full text; conference papers, surveys, letters, editorials, book chapters, and reviews were excluded.

RESULTS

The literature search resulted in 517 articles. After the selection process, 7 studies fulfilled the inclusion criteria and were included in this review, totaling 456 patients with early-stage node-negative OCC who were treated with BT alone (304 patients). Five-year LC, DFS, and OS for the BT group were 60-100%, 82-91%, and 50-84%, respectively.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, our review suggests that BT is effective in the treatment of early-stage OCC, particularly for T1N0 of the lip, mobile tongue, and buccal mucosa cancers, with good functional and toxicity profiles.

Comparison of the 8th edition of TNM staging of oral cancer with the 7th edition and its prognostic significance using clinical depth of invasion and extranodal extension

OBJECTIVES

The 8th edition of the International Union Against Cancer Control/American Joint Committee on Cancer Staging System introduced depth of invasion (DOI) and extranodal extension (ENE) into the staging of oral cavity cancer. We evaluated the prognostic ability of this new staging system compared with the 7th edition using clinical DOI (cDOI) and clinical ENE (cENE).

MATERIALS AND METHODS

We retrospectively reviewed and restaged 2,118 patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma treated between 2001 and 2018 using cDOI and cENE. Overall and disease-specific survival were used as endpoints to compare the prognostic outcomes of the 7th and 8th editions using Harrell's concordance index (C-index).

RESULTS

In total, 305 (14.4 %) cases were upstaged in the T category, 85 (4.0 %) cases were upstaged in the N category, and 280 (13.2 %) cases were upstaged in the overall TNM stage. The introduction of the cDOI increased the C-index and hazard ratio (HR) for each T category. The introduction of cENE increased the N3b category of 85 cases, bringing the total to 94 cases, thereby widening the differences between each N category. In the 8th edition, the C-index and HR for overall TNM stage increased, and the discrimination between stage groups improved.

CONCLUSIONS

The 8th edition of the TNM clinical staging system using cDOI and cENE predominantly identified patients with a high mortality rate, thus improving the ability to discriminate and prognosticate oral cancer.

Survival Outcomes and Factors Affecting Survival in Resectable Locally Advanced Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Management of locally advanced OSCC include primary surgery followed by adjuvant radiotherapy or chemo radiation, concurrent chemo radiation, induction chemotherapy followed by surgery or non surgical methods. In resectable disease the role of induction chemotherapy is questionable and surgery remains the first choice. In this study we aimed at evaluating the survival and factors effecting survival in locally advanced oral cancer. retrospective review of patient records was made. Kaplan Meir method was used to evaluate OS and DFS rate and log rank test was used to compare the survival amongst groups. Cox regression analysis (univariate and multivariate) was used to evaluate the hazard ratio to find out the possible factors influencing risk of death and disease. The 3 year OS of the entire cohort was 56.80% and 3 year DFS was 52.4%. ECS, surgical margin, PNI, LVI and LN size were independent risk factors for poor overall and disease free survival. We identified ECS, positive margin, LVI, PNI and LN size as independent risk factors effecting survival. These factors justify the use of adjuvant radiotherapy or chemo radiation according to the already available guidelines.

Adding Concomitant Chemotherapy to Postoperative Radiotherapy in Oral Cavity Carcinoma with Minor Risk Factors: Systematic Review of the Literature and Meta-Analysis

When presenting with major pathological risk factors, adjuvant radio-chemotherapy for oral cavity cancers (OCC) is recommended, but the addition of chemotherapy to radiotherapy (POCRT) when only minor pathological risk factors are present is controversial. A systematic review following the PICO-PRISMA methodology (PROSPERO registration ID: CRD42021267498) was conducted using the PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane libraries. Studies assessing outcomes of POCRT in patients with solely minor risk factors (perineural invasion or lymph vascular invasion; pN1 single; DOI ≥ 5 mm; close margin < 2−5 mm; node-positive level IV or V; pT3 or pT4; multiple lymph nodes without ENE) were evaluated. A meta-analysis technique with a single-arm study was performed. Radiotherapy was combined with chemotherapy in all studies. One study only included patients treated with POCRT. In the other 12 studies, patients were treated with only PORT (12,883 patients) and with POCRT (10,663 patients). Among the patients treated with POCRT, the pooled 3 year OS rate was 72.9% (95%CI: 65.5−79.2%); the pooled 3 year DFS was 70.9% (95%CI: 48.8−86.2%); and the pooled LRFS was 69.8% (95%CI: 46.1−86.1%). Results are in favor of POCRT in terms of OS but not significant for DFS and LRFS, probably due to the heterogeneity of the included studies and a combination of different prognostic factors.