Evaluation of the Accuracy of Liquid-Based Oral Brush Cytology in Screening for Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma.

Deuerling Deuerling,Gaida Gaida,Remmerbach Remmerbach,Neumann Neumann

doi:10.3390/cancers11111813

Abstract

This study evaluates the accuracy of the results of liquid-based oral brush cytology and compares it to the histology and/or the clinical follow-ups of the respective patients. A total of 1352 exfoliated specimens were collected with an Orcellex brush from an identical number of oral lesions, then cytological diagnoses were made using liquid-based cytology. The final diagnoses in the study were 105 histologically proven squamous cell carcinomas (SCCs), 744 potentially malignant lesions and 503 cases of traumatic, inflammatory or benign hyperplastic oral lesions. The sensitivity and specificity of the liquid-based brush biopsy were 95.6% (95% CI 94.5–96.7%) and 84.9% (95% CI 83.0–86.8%), respectively. This led to the conclusion that brush biopsy is potentially a highly sensitive and reliable method to make cytological diagnoses of oral neoplasia. The main advantage of a brush biopsy over a scalpel biopsy is that it is less invasive and is more tolerated by the patients. Therefore, more lesions can be screened and more cancers can be detected at an early stage.

Highlights

IntroductionMultiple abnormal molecular genetic events in various chromosomes and genes that are involved in the regulation of the cell cycle were found [2,3,4]
Squamous cell carcinomas (SCCs) are one of the most ubiquitous cancers in the world
We showed that brush cytology combined with the conventional smear technique has a high sensitivity (91.3%) and specificity (95.1%) for oral squamous cell carcinomas (SCCs) [31]

Summary

Introduction

Multiple abnormal molecular genetic events in various chromosomes and genes that are involved in the regulation of the cell cycle were found [2,3,4] They can lead to dysfunction in the cell growth cycle and the mechanisms to repair or eliminate cell damage [5]. It has been well known for years that there are certain factors that correlate with oral SCCs, such as tobacco smoking, alcohol drinking and betel quid chewing [6,7,8,9,10,11]. There is some evidence that suggests there is a correlation between the human papilloma virus (HPV) and SCCs, especially for HPV 16 and 18, this link has not yet been proven and is still undergoing research [12,13]

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Conclusion