Open AccessA comprehensive review of surgical margin in oral squamous cell carcinoma highlighting the significance of tumor-free surgical margins
Author(s) -
Mamata Kamat,
Bhagawan Das,
Rudrayya S Puranik,
Uma Datar
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
journal of cancer research and therapeutics/journal of cancer research and therapeutics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.475
H-Index - 39
eISSN - 0973-1482
pISSN - 1998-4138
DOI - 10.4103/jcrt.jcrt_273_17
Subject(s) - medicine , malignancy , basal cell , margin (machine learning) , narrative review , histopathology , surgical margin , oral cavity , treatment modality , modalities , surgery , general surgery , resection , pathology , intensive care medicine , computer science , orthodontics , machine learning , social science , sociology
Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is the most common malignancy of the oral cavity, and surgery is the most accepted line of treatment. The surgical margins (SMs) or resection margins are boundaries of resection specimen excised by the surgeon. The status of these resected SMs is an important and valuable tool to predict the treatment outcome. It is necessary to attain optimal SM to avoid local recurrence and improve overall survival. However, the controversies exist regarding the concept of optimal SM. There are various factors that influence the assessment of the SMs. In addition, apart from routine histopathology, the molecular assessment of resected margins has recently gained value which has a promising role for margin surveillance. Furthermore, the histological and molecular appraisal of tumor-free margins is also necessary to standardize the treatment modalities. Hence, this review aims to summarize the above issues that influence the evaluation of SMs of OSCC along with recent updates. Furthermore, an attempt has been made to give an overview about future possible approaches for the tumor-free margins. An electronic search was performed for items related to the evaluation of SMs in OSCC, and the obtained articles were critically assessed and the relevant information was extracted and summarized.