Evaluation of Depth of Invasion and Tumor Thickness as a Prognostic Factor for Early-Stage Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma: A Retrospective Study

You-Jung Lee; Tae-Geon Kwon; Jin-Wook Kim; Sung-Tak Lee; Su-Hyung Hong; So-Young Choi

doi:10.3390/diagnostics12010020

Evaluation of Depth of Invasion and Tumor Thickness as a Prognostic Factor for Early-Stage Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma: A Retrospective Study

Diagnostics (Basel). 2021 Dec 23;12(1):20. doi: 10.3390/diagnostics12010020.

Authors

You-Jung Lee¹, Tae-Geon Kwon¹, Jin-Wook Kim¹, Sung-Tak Lee¹, Su-Hyung Hong², So-Young Choi¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery, School of Dentistry, Kyungpook National University, 2175, Dalgubeol-daero, Jung-gu, Daegu 41940, Korea.
² Department of Microbiology and Immunology, School of Dentistry, Kyungpook National University, 2175, Dalgubeol-daero, Jung-gu, Daegu 41940, Korea.

Abstract

The aim of this study was to compare the effect of using depth of invasion (DOI) versus tumor thickness (TT) as a prognostic factor for early-stage oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). A total of 57 patients with early-stage OSCC treated surgically from 2009 to 2014 at our institution were reviewed retrospectively. Histopathological measurement of DOI and TT was performed. The validation of DOI and TT as prognostic factors was conducted using a Kaplan-Meier survival analysis. TT had no association with disease-specific survival (DSS) or progression-free survival (PFS) in this cohort; however, increased DOI was significantly associated with decreased DSS but not correlated to decreased PFS. The T category of the 7th edition of AJCC was statistically associated with both DSS and PFS; however, the T category of the 8th edition of the AJCC was only associated with DSS. In this study group, TT could not be used as a prognostic factor, and DOI was not by itself sufficient to predict prognosis for early-stage OSCC. The T category in AJCC 8th Edition cannot be considered the sole prognostic factor for early OSCC, so additional prognostic factors may need to be considered.

Keywords: T category; depth of invasion (DOI); disease-specific survival (DSS); early-stage oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC); progression-free survival (PFS); tumor thickness (TT).