title: Prognostic factors of oral mucosal melanoma: histopathological analysis in a retrospective cohort of 82 cases.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the histopathological predictors of overall survival and metastatic failure of oral mucosal melanoma (OMM), of which the histopathological classification and microstaging has not been established.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The pathological data, including cell type (CT), level of invasion, ulceration, mitotic rate, pigmentation, necrosis, tumour-infiltrating lymphocyte (TIL) and vascular invasion, of 82 OMM patients from April 2002 to April 2012 were reviewed and analysed retrospectively. CT, ulceration, mitotic rate, pigmentation, necrosis and vascular invasion were found to be of significance in predicting the overall survival of OMM patients. CT was an independent prognostic factor of overall survival in multivariate analysis. In patients with localized OMM, CT, level of invasion, mitotic rate, pigmentation and necrosis were associated with overall survival but none of them proved to be an independent prognostic factor. CT, mitotic rate and TIL were associated with the risk of distant metastasis. TIL was revealed to be an independent factor of distant metastases risk in multivariate analysis.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  CT was an independent prognostic factor of overall survival. Patients with epithelioid cell type OMM had a poor prognosis. Patients without TIL had a higher risk of distant metastasis.
authors: Department of Oral and Maxillofacial-Head and Neck Oncology, 9th People's Hospital, Shanghai Jiaotong University, School of Medicine, Shanghai, China.
authors: Hao
authors: H
authors: Song
authors: Department of Oral and Maxillofacial-Head and Neck Oncology, 9th People's Hospital, Shanghai Jiaotong University, School of Medicine, Shanghai, China.
authors: Yunteng
authors: Y
authors: Wu
authors: Department of Oral and Maxillofacial-Head and Neck Oncology, 9th People's Hospital, Shanghai Jiaotong University, School of Medicine, Shanghai, China.
authors: Guoxin
authors: G
authors: Ren
authors: Department of Oral and Maxillofacial-Head and Neck Oncology, 9th People's Hospital, Shanghai Jiaotong University, School of Medicine, Shanghai, China.
authors: Wei
authors: W
authors: Guo
authors: Department of Oral Pathology, 9th People's Hospital, Shanghai Jiaotong University, School of Medicine, Shanghai, China.
authors: Lizhen
authors: L
authors: Wang
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D016246:Lymphocytes, Tumor-Infiltrating / Q000473:pathology; D008297:Male; D008545:Melanoma / Q000276:immunology / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D009062:Mouth Neoplasms / Q000276:immunology / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology*; D009361:Neoplasm Invasiveness / Q000276:immunology / Q000473:pathology; D009364:Neoplasm Recurrence, Local / Q000276:immunology / Q000473:pathology; D011379:Prognosis; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D012189:Retrospective Studies
keywords: cell type; epithelioid cell; melanoma; metastasis; oral mucosa; prognosis