Features and prognostic utility of biopsy in oral squamous cell carcinoma

Abstract

A future clinical trial will compare the routine biopsy technique with standardized deeper biopsy techniques using punch biopsy to sample invasive fronts and investigate opportunities for up-front staging using a combination of histological features and epithelial and stromal molecular biomarkers in OSCC. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Head Neck 38: E1857-E1862, 2016.

Oral proliferative verrucous leukoplakia: A challenge for clinical management

“…It has been demonstrated that the mean biopsy depth of 4.1 mm is greater than the corresponding true tumor depth determined from the resection margin in 28% of OSCC cases. 11 This finding has some prognostic value, considering that 18% of the biopsies reported a tumor depth >4 mm, an important cutoff associated with more aggressive disease. 12 Therefore, a tumor depth of >4 mm in small lesions, such as T1 or early T2 tumors, could influence the decision on the optimum treatment to utilize.…”

“…12 Therefore, a tumor depth of >4 mm in small lesions, such as T1 or early T2 tumors, could influence the decision on the optimum treatment to utilize. 11 In the Discussion section, it has been reported, with regard to PVL lesions, that ". .…”

Biopsy Quality is Essential for Preoperative Prognostication in Oral Tongue Cancer

“…The primary role of OSCC biopsy is diagnostic but recently, there is increasing advocacy for a prognostic role for it [3,4,16,17]. Only optimal (at least > 5 mm deep) biopsies can serve this role.…”

“…Cancer diagnosis is mandatorily followed by preoperative staging (usually by clinical and imaging modalities) in order to determine the risk category and the most appropriate treatment plan for the patient. The need for extending the role of the biopsy from being only diagnostic to also include prognostication has recently been highlighted by some investigators [3,4]. In OSCC (and OTSCC), tumor grade of differentiation has not been found to be particularly useful in prognostication despite being the only universal routinely assessed histological feature in preoperative biopsies by pathologists [5][6][7].…”

“…They are necessary to explore as many possible histological prognostic details before decisions are made regarding treatment. The assessment of several tumor and stromal prognostic features from an adequate biopsy coupled with adequate tumor imaging will result in a better characterized lesion and strongly enhance the probability that the best management method will be planned upfront [3].…”