title: NBI utility in the pre-operative and intra-operative assessment of oral cavity and oropharyngeal carcinoma.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Despite advances in the surgical management of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, the identification of synchronous lesions, precancerous lesions around the main tumor, or the unknown primary in the case of neck metastasis remains a problem, as these lesions may be invisible to the naked eye or with standard white light (WL) endoscopy. However, the advent of tools such as narrow-band imaging (NBI) could help the clinician. The purpose of this study was to assess the impact of NBI during the pre-operative and intra-operative stages of management of oral and oropharyngeal cancers.
  
  
  METHODS
  NBI was used pre-operatively in 47 patients with oral or oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma to identify the involvement of adjacent subsites, multifocality, synchronous lesions or an unknown primary. NBI was used intra-operatively in 30 patients to better define the tumor limits and guide the resection. The advantage of NBI versus WL endoscopy was analyzed by calculating the true and false positive rate pre-operatively, and the need for resection enlargements, histology of the enlargement, and the rate of clear margins at definitive histology, intra-operatively.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Pre-operatively, the diagnostic gain of NBI was 8.5%, allowing identification of three synchronous tumors and one unknown primary. Intra-operatively, NBI improved the definition of tumor limits in 67.7% of cases, with resection enlargements showing dysplasia and carcinoma in 8 and 12 patients, respectively; we obtained 74.2% negative margins at histology.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  NBI could represent an added value in the pre-operative and intra-operative assessment of oral cavity and oropharyngeal carcinoma.
authors: ENT Clinic, Head and Neck Department, Azienda Sanitaria Universitaria Integrata di Trieste, Strada di Fiume 447, Trieste, Italy.
authors: Giancarlo
authors: G
authors: Tirelli
authors: ENT Clinic, Head and Neck Department, Azienda Sanitaria Universitaria Integrata di Trieste, Strada di Fiume 447, Trieste, Italy.
authors: Marco
authors: M
authors: Piovesana
authors: ENT Clinic, Head and Neck Department, Azienda Sanitaria Universitaria Integrata di Trieste, Strada di Fiume 447, Trieste, Italy.
authors: Annalisa
authors: A
authors: Gatto
authors: Department of Mathematics and Earth Science, University of Trieste, Via Weiss 2, Trieste, Italy.
authors: Lucio
authors: L
authors: Torelli
authors: Division of Oral Medicine and Pathology, Azienda Sanitaria Universitaria Integrata di Trieste, Piazza dell'Ospitale 2/1, Trieste, Italy.
authors: Roberto
authors: R
authors: Di Lenarda
authors: ENT Clinic, Head and Neck Department, Azienda Sanitaria Universitaria Integrata di Trieste, Strada di Fiume 447, Trieste, Italy. Electronic address: francesca.boscolonata@gmail.com.
authors: Francesca
authors: F
authors: Boscolo Nata
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery*; D015331:Cohort Studies; D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016343:Monitoring, Intraoperative / Q000379:methods; D009062:Mouth Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery*; D062048:Narrow Band Imaging / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D009959:Oropharyngeal Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery*; D011300:Preoperative Care / Q000379:methods; D011379:Prognosis; D011446:Prospective Studies; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D016019:Survival Analysis