title: Excisional biopsy with margin control for oral cancers.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  This study was undertaken to show how an excisional biopsy procedure can be used to remove the entire specimen for oral lesions with difficult diagnoses.
  
  
  METHODS
  We retrospectively reviewed 52 cases with 56 oral lesions either suspected to be malignant or with a preliminary controversial diagnosis. These were treated by excisional biopsy with frozen section intraoperatively between January 2003 and June 2008.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Twenty-eight of 56 lesions were diagnosed with malignancy. We found a high underdiagnosis rate (7 of 12) in patients who had a preliminary controversial diagnosis. Twenty-one patients without preoperative biopsy were diagnosed to have malignancies. Of the 28 malignant cases, all surgical margins were negative. Neck ultrasound scans with fine-needle aspiration cytology was carried out and no patient demonstrated simultaneous neck metastasis. One patient died of locoregional recurrence. Two patients died of a second primary cancer.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Excisional biopsy with margin control is useful both in diagnosis and treatment of oral cancers.
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Linkou, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Yu-Chien
authors.initials: YC
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Ku-Hao
authors.initials: KH
authors.lastname: Fang
authors.forename: Shih-Ming
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Jung
authors.forename: Jie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zheng
authors.forename: Sheng-Po
authors.initials: SP
authors.lastname: Hao
mesh_terms: D001706:Biopsy; D044963:Biopsy, Fine-Needle; D002277:Carcinoma / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery*; D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D005629:Frozen Sections; D006801:Humans; D007430:Intraoperative Care; D008198:Lymph Nodes / Q000473:pathology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009062:Mouth Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013524:Surgical Flaps; D018084:Ultrasonography, Interventional