Abstract
The purpose of this study was to assess the clinical course of stage I, II oral squamous cell carcinoma and relevant prognostic factors by reference to treatment modalities : (1) excisional biopsy (EB) and (2) incisional biopsy followed by preoperative chemotherapy (IB+chemo) . A total of 185 patients were entered into this retrospective study. Sixty-one patients underwent EB, and 124 patients IB+chemo. The clinical outcome of these two patient groups were compared. The chemotherapeutic effects in IB+chemo patients according to the Oboshi and Shimosato classification were as follows: 32 patients, grade III or N ; 48 patients, grade II b ; 44 patients, grade I or II a. The incidence of primary recurrence and regional lymph node metastasis was high in patients with grade I or II a compared with patients with EB. This results was statistically significant with univariate and multivariate analysis. Furthermore, the grade of chemotherapeutic effects compared with EB was selected as an independent prognostic factor for survival by multivariate analysis using Cox proportional hazard model. Grade I or II a of chemotherapeutic effect was associated with recurrence at primary site, regional lymph node metastasis, and a worse survival rate.
