Impact of radical treatments on survival in locally advanced T4a and T4b buccal mucosa cancers: Selected surgically treated T4b cancers have similar control rates as T4a

The American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) staging system classifies locally advanced squamous cell carcinoma of the buccal mucosa as T4a (moderately advanced local disease) when it invades the bone, skin or extrinsic muscles of the tongue and T4b (very advanced local disease) when it invades masticator space (MS), pterygoid plates (PP), skull base, and/or encases the internal carotid artery [1]. The purpose of this separation into T4a and T4b was to emphasize the high rate of unresectability, local recurrence [2,3] and poor prognosis in T4b tumors [4].
Source: Oral Oncology - Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Source Type: research