Non-Smoking, Non-Drinking Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma Is Associated with an Immune-Modulated Clinical Phenotype

Non-smoking, non-drinking (NSND) oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is increasingly recognized, yet its clinicopathologic and immune-related correlates remain incompletely defined.

We retrospectively studied 243 surgically treated patients with previously untreated primary OSCC (2011-2020). Patients were classified as NSND or smoking and/or drinking (SD). Immune-modulating conditions and preoperative systemic immune-inflammatory indices (NLR, LMR, SIRI, AISI) were assessed, and overall (OS) and disease-specific survival (DSS) were analyzed.

Eighty-five patients (35.0%) were NSND. NSND patients were more often female (58.8% vs. 12.7%) and slightly older (median 54 vs. 50 years). Subsite distribution differed (p < 0.001): tongue (52.9%), buccal mucosa (15.3%), and floor of mouth (3.5%) in NSND versus a predominance of floor of mouth tumors in SD (34.8%). NSND tumors showed smaller diameter, lower depth of invasion, less perineural invasion (40.5% vs. 55.1%), and more frequent inflammatory infiltrate (73.8% vs. 60.1%). Immune-modulating conditions were enriched in NSND (67.1% vs. 17.7%; p < 0.001; adjusted OR 6.25, 95% CI 3.23-12.11), particularly among NSND patients >50 years (79.2%). NSND patients showed lower NLR (p = 0.01), lower SIRI and AISI (p < 0.001), and higher LMR (p < 0.001). Median OS was 81.2 months; NSND showed a trend toward improved OS (p = 0.083) and improved OS after age/sex adjustment (HR 0.64, 95% CI 0.42-0.98), but not after full clinicopathologic adjustment; DSS did not differ (p = 0.59).

NSND OSCC exhibits a distinct clinicopathologic presentation and is strongly associated with immune-modulating comorbidity and lower tumor-associated systemic inflammatory indices, consistent with an immune-modulated clinical phenotype.