The occurrence and impact of time to presentation for oral squamous cell carcinoma with curative surgery

This study aimed to investigate the occurrence, significant features and prognostic impact of time to presentation (TTP) for oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) with curative surgery. A total of 633 OSCC patients who underwent primary surgery in the Beijing Stomatological Hospital were included. The baseline data were extracted from the POROMS database. Patients with an history of oral potentially malignant disorders (OPMDs) (OR: 1.72, 95% CI: 1.05-2.81), mild symptoms (OR: 1.54, 95% CI: 1.03-2.31) or buccal mucosa carcinoma (OR: 2.06, 95% CI: 1.27-3.34) were more likely to experience TTP>4.5 months. TTP was not an independent predictor for overall survival (OS) in the multivariate Cox analysis. The group with longer TTP had more tumors in stage I-II and fewer tumors in stage III-IV than those with shorter TTP. When analyzing the relationship between TTP and OS, a significant tumor-stage-mediated indirect effect was observed, and tumor stage mediated 35.2% of the total effect of TTP on OS, whereas the direct effect of TTP on survival was not significant. In conclusion, TTP does not imply worse survival of OSCC. The severity of the disease and intrinsic features of the tumor should be considered more than the time interval before presentation.