Association of Surgical Margins and Pathological Staging with Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor Expression in Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma- A Prospective Cohort Study

Abstract

Oral squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) is one among the most frequent cancers across the globe. The postoperative overall survival (OS) has not improved over years much despite of advanced surgical techniques and various anticancer drugs. A better and good understanding of molecular mechanisms and identification of potential oncogenes in OSCC may provide new therapeutic decisions such as target therapy in management of these cancer patients. To find whether there is any association between surgical margins and pathological staging with epidermal growth factor receptor expression affecting the prognosis in oral squamous cell carcinomas. A prospective cohort study was performed in 25 patients with biopsy proven oral squamous cell carcinoma who presented to our hospital from July 2017 to June 2019. The data collected from their report were pTNM staging, surgical margins (anterior, posterior, superior and inferior) and scoring of EGFR expression. Surgical margins with EGFR expression was found to have p-value of 0.023 and pTNM staging with EGFR expression was found to have p-value of 0.051 which were statistically significant. This study concludes that there is strong association of EGFR expression with pTNM and surgical margins which may influence the prognosis of the patient. This study helps us to understand the need of adding EGFR targets like cetuximab along with radiation instead of conventional cisplatin therapy.

Keywords: Epidermal growth factor receptor expression; Oral squamous cell carcinomas; Prognosis; Tumor margins.