Early oral cavity cancer: The prognostic factors and impact of adjuvant radiation on survival

Background Early oral cavity cancer has good prognosis but recurrence in them is still not uncommon. There is no general consensus on the prognostic factors and adjuvant therapy that would have a significant impact on survival. Methods A retrospective analysis of early oral cavity cancer patients during the time period 2009‐2017. The data regarding demographics, histopathological features, and recurrence patterns were collected and analyzed. Results Depth of invasion (DOI) was the most important prognostic factor among all the factors analyzed. Further analysis showed that addition of adjuvant radiotherapy for patients with DOI >5 mm did not show survival benefits (P = .73). Another subset analysis of patients with DOI >10 mm also did not show any survival advantage with adjuvant therapy P = .24. Conclusion There is no benefit of adding adjuvant RT in patients with DOI > 5 mm or in patients who were upstaged to T3 based only on DOI.