Potential of lymph-node ratio as a prognostic factor for patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma

Abstract

Background: To analyze the influence of the lymph node ratio (LNR) in survival of patients with OSCC METHODS: Clinicopathologic data from patients with OSCC who were treated with curative surgery and neck dissection (ND) with or without adjuvant therapies from 1991 to 2015 was retrospectively assessed. The impact of LNR and other variables on overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) was analyzed in univariate and multivariate analyses.

Results: One hundred nineteen patients were included. In the univariate analysis the LNR had a significant impact on OS (p = 0.01) and DFS (p = 0.01). In the multivariate analysis, the LNR was the only significantly independent factor influencing in the OS (p = 0.03). The adjuvant therapies did not influence on the OS (p = 0.42) and DFS (p = 0.10).

Conclusions: The LNR is an independent prognostic factor in patients with OSCC. The LNR alone is not recommended to indicate the performance of adjuvant therapies.

Keywords: Cervical lymph node metastasis; Lymph node ratio; Oral cancer; Oral squamous cell carcinoma; Prognostic factors.