Pp149

Abstract

Methods: Retrospect ive analysis of 47 patients of oral tongue squamous cell carcinoma treated surgically and pathologica lly staged as T2N0 with clear margins. The study period was from March 2004 to March 2011. Treatment outcome was evaluate d in terms of was locoregio nal recurre nce, disease free survival and overall survival. Kaplan Meir survival curves were used for the analysis. The mean follow up period was 28.3 months.Results: Recurrences occurred in 13 out of 47 patients (27.7%). At 5 years the overall survival is 80.5% and disease free survival is 53.9%. Univariate analysis revealed two significant prognost ic predictors for disease free survival: perineural invasion (PNI, p = 0.037) and lymphov ascular invasion (LVI, p = 0.05). This two factors did not have an effect on overall survival (p = 0.717). Conclusion:In oral tongue cancer (pT2N0), PNI and LVI significantly increased the recurre nce rate without an impact on surviva l. Prospect ive studies with large patient numbers are needed to evaluate this further and to see if adjuvant therapeuti c strategies need to be changed .