Clinicopathological Prognostic Parameters in Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Aim: To determine the prognostic parameters in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). Methods: All cases were retrospectively and prospectively analyzed from August 2014 to July 2018 for various prognostic parameters. The parameters were divided into demographic, clinical and pathological groups. TNM pathological stage was determined in each case. Results: 53 cases were included. Male to female ratio was 1.3:1. Mean age was 58.9 years. Males reported greater risk prone habits to oral cancer than females. Tobacco usage was the predominant habit, with maximum number of cases showing duration of 20- 30 years of that habit. Medium socioeconomic and primary educational status was the commonest. Maximum number of patients presented within 6 months of onset of symptoms. Buccal mucosa and lower gingiva i. e. gingivobuccal sulcus was the most common affected site. Majority of patients presented in Stage III (49.1%). Staging by the current AJCC TNM system was done. Tumor size of greater than2 and 10 mm was the commonest. Moderately differentiated OSCC (45.3%) was predominant histological grade.6 cases came out to be OSCC variants. Close surgical margins, PNI and LVI were identified more commonly in advanced stages.40% cases had lymph node metastasis and 20% had extranodal extension. Conclusions: TNM classification had significant correlation with clinical and histopathological parameters. These highly significant results indicated that histologically invasive areas may be primarily responsible for clinical behaviour of the tumor and this may be important for therapy of choice for OSCC. The current AJCC TNM system of staging appears to be a better mechanism for assessment of tumor volume and predict the prognosis of OSCC. Analysis of the TNM system has been adopted to plan treatment and provide better evaluation of patient's evolution.