Compartmental tongue surgery for intermediate-advanced squamous cell carcinoma: A multicentric study.

Abstract

A multicentric study was conducted on technical reproducibility of compartmental tongue surgery (CTS) in advanced tongue cancers (OTSCC) and comparison to standard wide margin surgery (SWMS). We studied 551 patients with OTSCC treated by CTS and 50 by SWMS. Oncological outcomes were analyzed. A propensity score was performed to compare survival endpoints for the two cohorts. In the CTS group, survival and prognosis were significantly associated with positive lymph-nodes, extranodal extension, depth of invasion and involvement of the soft tissue connecting the tongue primary tumor to neck lymph nodes (T-N tract), independently from the center performing the surgery. SWMS versus CTS showed a HR Cause-Specific Survival (CSS) of 3.24 (95% CI: 1.71-6.11; p < 0.001); HR Loco-Regional Recurrence Free Survival (LRRFS) of 2.54 (95% CI: 1.47-4.40; p < 0.001); HR Overall Survival (OS) of 0.11 (95% CI: 0.01-0.77; p = 0.03). Performing the CTS could provide better CSS and LRRFS than SWMS regardless of the center performing the surgery, in advanced OTSSC.