Impact of postoperative radiation therapy for deeply invasive oral cavity cancer upstaged to stage III

Abstract

Background

This article is about the eighth edition staging guidelines for upstaged patients with oral cavity squamous cell carcinoma (OCSCC) with >10 mm depth to pT3. This upstages some patients from stage I‐II to stage III, a point at which patients are traditionally considered for postoperative radiation therapy (PORT). The role of PORT in patients upstaged for >10 mm depth is unknown.

Methods

We identified patients with surgically resected stage I‐II OCSCC with >10 mm depth who were upstaged to stage III. We used Cox proportional hazard modeling to compare patients who received PORT to those who did not (median follow‐up 38.6 months).

Results

We observed that 3.6% of patients with OCSCC were upstaged to stage III for depth >10 mm including 823 eligible patients. On adjusted analyses, PORT was associated with improved overall survival in patients upstaged to stage III (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR] 0.47, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.30‐0.73).

Conclusion

PORT is associated with improved survival for patients with OCSCC upstaged to stage III for >10 mm depth.

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