Invasive tumor front in oral squamous cell carcinoma: an independent prognostic factor

<p class="abstract"><strong>Background:</strong> Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) is one of the most aggressive and invasive cancer types. Squamous cell carcinomas of the oral cavity are among the ten most common cancers in the world, and accounts for almost 3-5% of all malignancies. The invasive edges of head and neck squamous cell carcinomas often display different morphological and molecular characteristics than more superficial parts of the same tumor.</p><p class="abstract"><strong>Methods:</strong> In our 2 year retrospective study, carried at a tertiary care centre of north India, main aim was to evaluate the prognostic significance of several parameters of the modified Bryne’s grading system along with probability of survival in OSCC patients. </p><p class="abstract"><strong>Results:</strong> Out of 60 cases 40 were males and 20 were females. Tumor differentiation was assessed which showed that 90% of the tumors were well differentiated, 6.6% of the tumors were moderately differentiated and 3.4% of the tumors were poorly differentiated. The predominant POI in the primary OSCC was pattern 2 (63.4% in 38 cases) followed by pattern 3, pattern 1and pattern 4 (28.4% in17 cases, 6.6% in 4 cases and 1.6% in 1 case) respectively.</p><p class="abstract"><strong>Conclusions:</strong> Distributing all the cases according to the Bryne’s prognostic groups we found that 13 (21.7%) cases belonged to group with a score of &lt;9, and 47 cases (78.3%) had a score of &gt;9.<strong> </strong>The 5-year tumour-specific<strong> </strong>survival in OSCC patients with invasive front score of &lt;9 was 95% compared to 46.25% in patients with high invasive front score &gt;9.</p>