Association of the Depth of Invasion wth Lymph Node Metastasis in Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma Patients - A Retrospective Study

Abstract

Oral squamous cell carcinoma is the most common oral malignancy representing upto 80 % to 90% of
all malignancies of oral cavity. In Indian population, it ranks 3rd of all carcinomas. Dietary factors and
external factors like tobacco, smoking and alcohol consumption are the major causes for progression of oral
squamous cell carcinoma. Histopathologically, the tumor progression is assessed by TNM staging. It is the
most common and widely practised histomorphological evaluation of tumor progression. Depth of invasion
is also another tool for evaluating tumor progression in OSCC and is also used widely in every clinico
histopathological slide evaluation and diagnosis. In this study, a correlation was made between depth of
invasion and nodal metastasis. All the data was collected after checking 86,000 patient records. Details such
as age, sex, pathological TNM staging, depth of invasion and cases with nodal metastasis were tabulated.
Association was made using the IBM SPSS version 20.0. Pearson chi square test did not show any significant
association between depth of invasion with nodal metastasis. Other factors like pattern of invasion, tumor
differentiation, site of the lesion as well as the age of the patient has to be taken into consideration for future
assessment.