Guideline on pathological diagnosis of oral and oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma

Abstract

Oral and oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinomas are the most common malignant tumours of the oral and maxillofacial region. A standardized pathological diagnosis report for oral and oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma should provide not only the pathological diagnosis itself as much accurate as possible, but also the information related to assessment of prognosis and strategy of treatment for the patient. An expert group organized by Society of Oral Pathology, Chinese Stomatological Association has set a guideline for the tissue fixation, gross examination and format of the pathological diagnosis report of oral and oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma. The guideline covers the important changes in clinical and pathological aspects of oral and oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinomas in recent years, such as depth of invasion in T category, extranodal extension in N category and human papilloma virus-associated squamous cell carcinoma in oropharyngeal carcinomas. Hopefully the guideline will improve the quality of pathological reports of oral and oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinomas and provide reliable data on clinical therapy and prognosis evaluation of patients with oral and oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinomas in China.