ASSOCIATION OF THE DEPTH OF TUMOR & LYMPHATIC METASTASIS IN ORAL TONGUE CANCER

Carcinoma of tongue is one of the most notorious cancer of head and neck region. It constitutes about 36.5% of all oral malignancies. Neck node status is the single most important prognostic factor in oral tongue cancers and other head and neck cancers . Another important parameter which has the greatest influence on survival is the tumor thickness especially in carcinoma tongue . In this study, we assessed the association between tumor thickness & lymphatic metastasis in oral tongue cancer. The optimal cut-off point for tumor thickness was 4mm. Total 126 cases were studied of which maximum cases were between 40-49 years of age .Cases were more prevalent in males (69.05%) than females(30.95%) . As the T-stage of cancer progressed , the incidence of nodal metastasis also progressively advanced. It was also observed that as the tumor thickness increased , the proportion of positive lymph node cases also significantly increased. There was significant positive correlation between the tumor thickness measured on MRI and histopathology (r=0.709 , p<0.001)