Immediate resection of positive margins improves local control in oral tongue cancer
Related Experiment Video For Frozen sections
Updated: Aug 1, 2025
Intraoperative Assessment of Resection Margins in Oral Cavity Cancer: This is the Way
Published on: May 10, 2021
Lisa Zhang1, Ryan T Judd1, Songzhu Zhao1
1Division of Head and Neck Oncology, Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, The James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute, The Ohio State University, 4000 Eye and Ear Institute, 915 Olentangy River Rd, Columbus, OH 43212, USA.
Objectives:
This study investigates the impact of immediate resection of positive margins on local control of oral tongue cancer.
Materials And Methods:
We analyzed 273 consecutive oral tongue cancers resected from 2013 to 2018. Additional resection was performed in cases during the initial operation based on surgeon inspection of the specimen and/or frozen margins. Positive margins were defined as invasive carcinoma/high-grade dysplasia < 1 mm from the inked edge. Patients were grouped as follows: negative margin (Group 1); positive margin with immediate additional tissue resection (Group 2); and positive margin without additional tissue resection (Group 3).
Results:
Overall, the rate of local recurrence was 7.7 % (21/273), and the rate of positive main specimen margin was 17.9 %. Of these patients, 38.8 % (19/49) underwent immediate additional resection of the presumed positive margin. Group 3 had higher local recurrence rates than Group 1 after adjustment for T-stage (aHR 2.8 [95 % CI 1.0-7.7], p = 0.04). Group 2 had similar rates of local recurrence (aHR 0.45 [95 % CI 0.06-3.6], p = 0.45). Three year local recurrence free survival for Groups 1, 2, and 3 were 91 %, 92 % and 73 %, respectively. Compared to the main specimen margin, sensitivity of intraoperative frozen tumor bed margins was 17.4 %, and specificity was 95 %.
Conclusion:
In patients with positive main specimen margins, anticipation and detection in real-time with immediate additional tissue resection reduced local recurrence to rates similar to those with negative main specimen margins. These findings support the use of technology to provide real-time intraoperative margin data and guide additional resection for improved local control.
