title: The status of the deep surgical margins in tongue and floor of mouth squamous cell carcinoma and risk of local recurrence; an analysis of 68 patients.
abstract: The objective of this study is to retrospectively assess the clinical relevance, i.c. the event of a local recurrence, in patients surgically treated for tongue and floor of mouth squamous cell carcinoma when tumour cell are observed histopathologically at a distance of less than 0.5 cm. Furthermore, the pattern of invasion and the presence or absence of perineural spread were recorded. A total of 68 patients, surgically treated because of a tongue or floor of mouth squamous cell carcinoma, were examined. Patients in whom any degree of epithelial dysplasia was observed in the mucosal surgical margins had been excluded beforehand. Local recurrence occurred in 2 out of 30 patients with a free surgical margins >0.5 cm and in 3 out of 38 patients with a free surgical margin <0.5 cm, the difference being not statistically significant. Apparently, the presence of tumour cells within a distance of less than 0.5 cm, but not into the deep surgical margin, does not necessarily seem to require additional treatment. The pattern of invasion and the presence or absence of perineural spread were not significantly related with local recurrence either.
authors.affiliation: Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery/Pathology, VU University Medical Center/ACTA, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Weijers
authors.forename: G B
authors.initials: GB
authors.lastname: Snow
authors.forename: D P
authors.initials: DP
authors.lastname: Bezemer
authors.forename: J E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: van dr Wal
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: van der Waal
mesh_terms: D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009060:Mouth Floor / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery; D009061:Mouth Mucosa / Q000473:pathology; D009062:Mouth Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery; D009361:Neoplasm Invasiveness; D009364:Neoplasm Recurrence, Local; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011379:Prognosis; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D014062:Tongue Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery