Correlation of clinical, cytological and histological findings in oral squamous cell carcinomas

Tissue Fluorescence Imaging (VELscope) for Quick Non-Invasive Diagnosis in Oral Pathology

Oral squamous cell carcinoma is the most common form of malignancy of the oral cavity; its incidence is increasing and late-stage presentation is common. It is usually predated by oral premalignant disorders. For this reason, early diagnosis is fundamental to reduce the malignant transformation of oral premalignant disorders and for increase the survival rate for oral cancer. Scraping the surface of the lesion is useful for having cytological features of the investigated tissue. The features of smears of oral premalignant lesions are the keratinization growth (red, orange, brown), the increased nuclear area and so the nuclear hyperchromatism, the nuclear pleomorphism, and the chromatin clumping. All those features are essential for doing the right diagnosis. However, the oral disease should be recognized at the first view by the clinical investigation without touching the lesions avoiding possible alteration in the cells of the tissue. The current standard of incisional biopsy with histology is painful for patients and involves a delay, although histology is completed. The aim of this article is to evaluate the effectiveness of other available tests that are unobtrusive and provide immediate results like the tissue fluorescence imaging.

Diagnostic accuracy of oral cancer cytology in a pilot study

BACKGROUND

Recently, cytology has been applied to the diagnosis of oral lesions. We aimed to explore the diagnostic accuracy of oral cytology based on the histological diagnosis.

METHODS

Histological diagnoses of 327 cases were classified as Negative, Borderline lesion -, Borderline lesion +, oral intraepithelial neoplasia/carcinoma in situ (OIN/CIS), or Positive. Cytological diagnoses were classified as NILM (negative for intraepithelial lesion or malignancy), LSIL (low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion), HSIL (high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion), or SCC (squamous cell carcinoma). The cytology slides were evaluated by 10 raters and the results were compared with the histology results.

RESULTS

In 142 cases that were histologically negative, the number of NILM, LSIL, HSIL, and SCC and other malignancy was 77 (54.2%), 47 (34.3%), 8 (5.6%), and 10 (7.0%), respectively. Among 32 cases of Borderline lesion -, the number of NILM, LSIL, HSIL, and SCC and other malignancy was 11 (34.3%), 11 (34.3%), 9 (28.1%), and 1 (3.1%), respectively. Also, in 4 cases of Borderline lesion +, the number of NILM, LSIL, HSIL, and SCC and other malignancy was 2 (50.0%), 0 (0.0%), 0 (0.0%), 2 (50.0%), respectively. Among 12 cases of OIN/CIS, the number of NILM, LSIL, HSIL, and SCC and other malignancy was 1 (8.3%), 2 (16.7%), 4 (33.3%), and 5 cases (41.7%), respectively. Among 137 cases with a histological diagnosis of Positive, the number of NILM, LSIL, HSIL, and SCC and other malignancy was 7 (5.1%), 22 (16.1%), 19 (13.9%), and 89 (65.0%), respectively. Sensitivity, specificity, and positive predictive and negative predictive values were 93.5, 50.6, 62.4, and 89.8%, respectively, when the cytological diagnosis of Negative was assumed to be NILM; they were 77.8, 83.9, 81.0 and 81.1%, respectively, if the cytological diagnosis of Negative was assumed to be NILM and LSIL. The number of false-positive and false-negative diagnosis affected cases with LSIL and HSIL may indicate the difficulty in the cytological diagnosis of borderline lesions. While the negative predictive value was relatively high (89.8%) when cytological Negative was assumed to be NILM only.

CONCLUSION

Histopathological examination should be recommended in cases with cytological diagnoses of LSIL, HSIL, and SCC.