Excision margins in squamous cell carcinoma of the tongue: A retrospective audit and review of the literature

Abstract

<p style="text-align:justify;"> <span style="font-size:12px;">The incidence of close and involved tongue resection margins for squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) were reviewed with the aim to identify any possible need for change in the surgical approach to glossectomies. The histopathological reports of 101 partial glossectomies for SCC between 2006 and 2012 were retrospectively reviewed. Results: Overall 52 (51.5%) patients had one or more close or involved margin and 9 (8.9%) had both close and involved margins. 42 (41.5%) patients had close margins and 11 (10.9%) had involved margins. The inferior/lateral muscoal margin was most frequently close/involved (32%) followed by deep margin (27%). The anterior margin was least close/involved (5%). The posterior and superior/medical margins were close/involved in 12% and 11% of cases respectively. Conclusions: 52.5% of patients had close or involved margins following surgery, potentially requiring further treatment to avoid an increased risk of tumour recurrence and the associated increase in morbidity and mortality. The inferior/lateral and deep margins were most frequently involved possible due to the anatomical difficulties visualising and dissecting these margins. The potential explanations for these disparities and possible solutions are discussed.</span> </p

The Effect of Correlation Between Prognostic Factors and Long-Term Mortality in Tongue Cancers

“…The presence of tumor tissue at the surgical margin after glossectomy increases the chance of relapse (12). In a retrospective study on 192 patients conducted by Wong et al (13), positive surgical margins were reported to be associated with local recurrence; 12% of patients were reported to have positive surgical margins, and 55.7% were reported to have close surgical margins (1-5 mm). In our postoperative histopathology reports, it was reported that 7 (9.1%) of our patients had surgical margin positivity, 1 patient (1.3%) had carcinoma in situ at the surgical margin, and 1 patient (1.3%) had dysplasia.…”

Clinicopathological characteristics predicting advanced stage and surgical margin invasion of oral squamous cell carcinoma: A single‑center study on 10 years of cancer registry data

“…The surgical margins and LVI were only assessed using the resection specimen and not in the samples obtained from biopsy or excision. Negative margins were defined as those with resection margins of ≥5 mm, and positive margins as those with the tumor still involved (<1 mm) or close to (1-5 mm) healthy tissue, based on several previous studies (28)(29)(30). Clinical TNM staging of patients who underwent operative procedures were categorized based on the criteria published by the 8th American Joint Committee on Cancer (31).…”