Squamous Cell Carcinoma: Clinical and Pathological Features and Associated Risk Factors in an Observational Study of...

In the latest edition of its cancer staging manual, the American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) revised the criteria for staging squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) by introducing high-risk tumor features to define tumor stage (T) and help to identify tumors with a higher risk of metastasis. The aim of this study was to investigate the characteristics associated with SCC meeting the high-risk criteria defined by the AJCC for T2 lesions.

We performed a case-case observational study in which patients with SCC were included over a period of 18 months. We collected clinical, anthropometric, and tumor data, and analyzed these using PASW Statistics (SPSS) version 18.

One-hundred eighteen patients, the majority of whom were men, were included. Mean age was 77 years. Over 70% of the tumors were located in the head region and a majority of tumors measured 2 cm or less. The prevalence of SCC T2 was 61.9%. The risk factors significantly associated with SCC T2 were an age of over 85 years (odds ratio [OR], 4.48), location in the head and neck region (OR, 3.38), presence of solar elastosis in the peritumoral tissue (OR, 2.08), a higher tumor growth rate (>1.5 mm·wk(-1); OR, 5.73), and higher cumulative exposure to smoking (>20 pack-years, OR, 3.63).

Advanced age, location in the head and neck region, presence of solar elastosis, high tumor growth rate, and high cumulative smoking exposure were all significantly associated with the presence of SCC T2.