Depth of invasion, size and number of metastatic nodes predicts extracapsular spread in early oral cancers with occult metastases

Oral cancer is a major health problem worldwide with 300,373 new cases detected in the year 2012 [1]. It is the most common cancer in Indian men and fifth most common cancer amongst females [2]. The presence of nodal metastasis in oral cancers is one of the most important prognostic factors that may decrease survival by 50% [3]. It is important to note that clinically node negative (c N0) oral cancer patients harbor occult nodal metastasis to the range of 13 –53% [4]. This occult nodal metastasis may also have Extracapsular spread (ECS) that adversely affects survival [5].

Source: Oral Oncology - May 2, 2018 Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Manish D. Mair, Rathan Shetty, Deepa Nair, Yash Mathur, Sudhir Nair, Anuja Deshmukh, Shiva Thiagarajan, Gouri Pantvaidya, Sarbani Lashkar, Kumar Prabhash, Devendra Chaukar, Prathmesh Pai, Anil D. Cruz, Pankaj Chaturvedi Source Type: research