Abstract
Oral cancer accounts for 3% of all malignant neoplasm’s and is
the eighth most common cancer in the world, with epidemiologic
variations among different geographic regions. It causes substantial
mortality and morbidity. Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC)
is of significant public health problem in India, and it accounts
for approximately 30% of all cancers in the country. The objective
of the present study was to compare individual histopathology
parameters of malignancy between non-metastatic and metastatic
SCC of the tongue to contribute to the identification of morphologic
parameters associated with cervical metastasis that could serve
as indicators of aggressiveness. We carried out a retrospective
analysis of 69 patients with tongue cancer who had undergone wide
excision and neck dissection. The histopathological characteristics
of the tumour, such as, degree of tumour cell differentiation, depth
of invasion, pattern of invasion, perineural invasion, and local
host response were studied using standard statistical analysis to
determine their association with neck nodal metastasis. The goal is
to correlate these parameters with cervical metastasis to determine
the optimal treatment for tongue cancer.
Keywords: Oral cancer; Pattern of invasion (POI); Aggressiveness.