Step Serial Sectioning in Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma of Unknown Primary

Patients with suspected head and neck squamous cell carcinoma of unknown primary (HNSCCUP) may undergo tonsillectomy and tongue base mucosectomy (TBM) to help identify clinicoradiologically occult primary disease. It is hypothesized that when these diagnostic specimens are analyzed, conventional histopathological (CH) techniques risk missing small primary tumors that may be hidden in the tissue blocks.

To establish the outcomes of a step serial sectioning (SSS) histopathological technique vs CH when analyzing diagnostic tissue specimens from TBM and tonsillectomy performed for HNSCCUP.

The MOSES prospective multicenter noninterventional cohort study was conducted over a 25-month period from November 2019 at secondary and tertiary care ear, nose, and throat departments in the United Kingdom and included adults with clinicoradiologically occult HNSCCUP who were undergoing TBM.

Conventional histopathological techniques performed on TBM and tonsillectomy specimens at participating centers, followed by SSS performed at the central laboratory.

Identification of cancer on central histopathological review of TBM and tonsillectomy specimens.

Tissue from 58 eligible patients was analyzed (median [range] age, 58 [47-82] years; 10 women [17%]), with 20 480 sections cut in the laboratory and 4096 sections directly examined by a pathologist (median [range], 64 [28-135] per patient). The overall identification rate for TBM following SSS according to study protocol was 50.0% (95% CI, 37.5%-62.5%) and by subgroups was 42.9% (95% CI, 21.4%-67.4%) when performed following a negative bilateral tonsillectomy, 46.7% (95% CI, 24.8%-69.9%) at the same time as bilateral tonsillectomy, and 57.1% (95% CI, 36.5%-75.5%) following historic tonsillectomy. Conventional histopathological techniques at central review identified 2 undiagnosed primary tumors and revised the diagnosis of 2 other cases (1 nonmalignant and another down staged). Step serial sectioning identified a single additional tumor: an ipsilateral synchronous tongue base tumor for which a contralateral tumor had been identified on CH. Multifocal disease was seen in 5 (8.6%); all were human papillomavirus-related and in the tongue base.

In this multicenter cohort study of patients undergoing TBM for HNSCCUP, SSS was associated with added considerable histopathological workload with minimal additional diagnostic benefit. A second opinion for conventional histological techniques may be more beneficial. Synchronous primary disease should be considered when planning diagnostic oropharyngeal surgery for these patients.