Importance of lymphovascular invasion and invasive front on survival in floor of mouth cancer.

BACKGROUND: The floor of mouth (FOM) is a common site of oral squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). The purpose of this study was to investigate pathological predictors of survival in FOM SCC. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective study of 54 consecutive patients undergoing surgery for FOM SCC. Pathological parameters were extracted from histological reports with original pathology slides re-reviewed by 2 pathologists for missing data. RESULTS: On univariate analysis, depth of invasion >10 mm (p = .009), lymphovascular invasion (LVI; p < .001), noncohesive invasive front (p = .006), perineural invasion (PNI; p = .003), and nodal metastases (p = .02) were significant predictors of overall survival. On multivariate analysis, LVI (p = .009) and invasive front (p < .001) remained significant. Postoperative radiotherapy improved survival in patients with LVI, PNI, and nodal metastases, and was just outside significance for noncohesive invasive front (p = .06). CONCLUSION: LVI is an adverse prognosticator in FOM SCC and indicates postoperative radiotherapy. Further study is required to investigate the importance of invasive front. (c) 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Head Neck 38: E1528-E1534, 2016.