Impact of dysplastic surgical margins for patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma

Dysplastic changes at the surgical margin of oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) could be encountered frequently. However, the impact of a dysplastic surgical margin on patients with OSCC remains unclear.

Retrospectively, we reviewed patients with OSCC who were diagnosed and treated at the National Taiwan University Hospital between January 2010 and December 2015. Patients were divided into four groups: clear (≥5 mm), close (<5 mm), positive, and dysplastic margins.

Of 1642 patients, 596 had clear margin, 169 had positive margin, 707 had close margin, and 170 had dysplastic margin. The mean age at diagnosis was 55 ± 11 years (range, 16-97 years). Dysplastic margins were frequently present in patients with primary T1/T2 OSCC (odds ratio [OR] = 1.7, p = 0.009), tumor without perineural invasion (OR = 1.48, p = 0.04), and tumor thickness ≤10 mm (OR = 1.94, p = 0.001). In patients with clear, close, positive, and dysplastic margins, the 5-year disease-free survival rates were 63.1%, 51%, 37.2%, and 54.7%, respectively; overall survival (OS) rates were 71.1%, 61.9%, 49%, and 72%, respectively. Disease-free and overall survival were not significantly different in patients with dysplastic and clear margins (p = 0.37 and p = 0.38, respectively). Adjuvant radiotherapy had no significant benefit for patients with dysplastic margins. Finally, a multivariate analysis showed that the presence of a dysplastic margin was not an independent risk factor for disease-free (p = 0.43) and overall survival (p = 0.71).

The survival rates of the patients with OSCC who had dysplastic margin were significantly better than those with positive margin.