Background
The aim of this study was to identify factors predicting poor prognosis at the time of early oral tongue carcinoma diagnosis.
Methods
A retrospective cohort study was carried out on 70 patients with T1 or T2 squamous cell carcinoma of the mobile tongue treated with primary surgical treatment.
Results
In all, 47% of patients received adjuvant treatment. Local recurrence was observed in 29% and regional recurrence in 26%. With a median follow‐up of 7.3 years for living patients, 5‐year actuarial overall, disease‐specific, and disease‐free survival rates were 48%, 61%, and 42%, respectively. The presence of poor histological differentiation increased the overall risk of death. Tumor thickness and posterior lingual location independently increased overall and disease‐specific risk of death. Concurrent or previous diagnosis of oral lichen significantly increased the risk of disease‐specific death and disease recurrence.
Conclusions
This study corroborates several known prognostic factors and indicates that diagnosis of oral lichen planus may be a risk factor for disease recurrence. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Head Neck, 2011