title: Features and prognostic utility of biopsy in oral squamous cell carcinoma.
abstract: Traditional approaches in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) management utilize biopsy tissue for diagnostic purposes only. Adverse prognostic features, such as the tumor depth, are usually determined from final resection specimens, but are seldom studied in biopsy tissue.
  
  
  
  A preliminary study of 139 consecutive biopsies compared biopsy size with T classification, tumor site, and operator grade, and biopsy tumor depth with the true tumor depth.
  
  
  
  This study demonstrated that biopsy size is independent of T classification (p = .44), subsite (p = .86), and operator grade (p = .10). The biopsy tumor depth significantly underrepresented true tumor depth (2.5 mm, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 2.4-2.9 vs 8.2 mm, 95% CI = 6.5-9.9; p < .001), confirming the limited prognostic utility of biopsies in OSCC.
  
  
  
  A future clinical trial will compare the routine biopsy technique with standardized deeper biopsy techniques using punch biopsy to sample invasive fronts and investigate opportunities for up-front staging using a combination of histological features and epithelial and stromal molecular biomarkers in OSCC. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Head Neck 38: E1857-E1862, 2016.
authors.affiliation: Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, University Hospital Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Jagtar
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Dhanda
authors.affiliation: Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, University Hospital Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Nugdeep
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Uppal
authors.affiliation: Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, University Hospital Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Harpreet
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Chowlia
authors.affiliation: Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, University Hospital Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Neil
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Opie
authors.affiliation: Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, University Hospital Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Laith
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Al-Qamachi
authors.affiliation: Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, University Hospital Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Devesh
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Shelat
authors.affiliation: Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, University Hospital Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Adil
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Aslam
authors.affiliation: Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, University Hospital Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Arie
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Yuffa
authors.affiliation: Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, University Hospital Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Timothy
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Martin
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular & Clinical Cancer Medicine, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Janet
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Risk
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular & Clinical Cancer Medicine, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, United Kingdom.|Regional Oral and Maxillofacial Unit, Aintree University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Liverpool, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Asterios
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Triantafyllou
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular & Clinical Cancer Medicine, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, United Kingdom.|Regional Oral and Maxillofacial Unit, Aintree University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Liverpool, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Shaw
authors.affiliation: Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, University Hospital Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Satyesh
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Parmar
authors.affiliation: Institute of Cancer and Genomic Sciences, Institute of Head and Neck Studies and Education, Vincent Drive, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Hisham
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Mehanna
mesh_terms: D001706:Biopsy; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009062:Mouth Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000473:pathology; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011379:Prognosis
keywords: biopsy; cancer; features; oral; prognostic