Positive fresh frozen section margins as an adverse independent prognostic factor for local recurrence in oral cancer patients

Objectives To access 1) the value of further surgical resection (completion surgery) in cases with a positive intraoperative margin analysis, and 2) whether cancers that undergo completion surgery following positive intraoperative margin analysis with subsequent negative margins should be considered true margin‐negative (R0) resections in terms of adjuvant treatment planning. Study Design Retrospective analysis of patients with primary oral cancer. Methods One hundred and fifty‐one patients underwent primary surgical resection of oral squamous cell carcinoma with intraoperative margin examination. In all cases for which frozen section margin analysis was positive, an extended resection was performed. Only patients with clear final margins were included in the study. Results The intraoperative analysis of surgical margins revealed that cancer‐free margins were achieved in 123 cases (81.5%). In 28 specimens (18.5%), the surgical margins were positive. Local recurrence was observed in 28 (18.5%) patients, whereas regional recurrence developed in 30 (19.9%) patients. Factors significantly (P