Mohamed Ghorab, Mohamed Ahmed Farid Shehab, Mohamed Atef AbdelRasoul And Hossam Abdel Kader El Fol,

ABSTRACT
Aim Out Of The Proposed Prognostic Factors In The Literature To Predict Nodal Metastases In N0 Patients In Head, Tumor Thickness Or Depth Of Invasion Is Highly Regarded As Reliable. In Addition, The American Joint Committee On Cancer Has Issued Its Latest Staging System In January 2017 With The Incorporation Of Depth Of Invasion Into The TNM Staging System. Although The Most Accurate Tumor Thickness Measurement Is Taken Directly From The Specimen After Pathological Examination. Preoperative Estimation Of The Tumor Thickness Is An Important Step In The Decision Making. Our Aim Is To Compare The Tumor Thickness Values Obtained Preoperatively By Ultrasonography And Tumor Thickness Obtained Post Operatively By Pathological Examination And Corelate Both In Predicating Nodal Disease.Methodology The Study Was Conducted On 30 Patients Divided Into Two Groups Based On The 4mm Cutoff Value. Preoperative Assessment With Ultrasound For Tumor Thickness Was Done And Followed By Correlation With Pathological Specimen. The Correlation Between Tumor Thickness (TT) As Measured By Ultrasound (rTT) And Histopathology (pTT) Was Evaluated Using Pearson?s Correlation Test. The Association Of Tumor Thickness, Gender, T-category And Histological Grade With The Presence Of Lymph Node Metastasis Was Analyzed Using Chi-square Test. Results There Was No Statistically Significantdifference In Age And Gender Distribution Between Both Groups (P=0.983 And P=1.000, Respectively). There Was No Statistically Significantdifference In The Frequency Of T Stage Between Both Groups (P=0.135). In The Entire Study, 10 Patients (33.3%) Showed Nodal Metastasis And 20 Patients (66.6%) Had Negative Nodes. Tumor Thickness Was The Only Significantpredictor Of Cervical Lymph Node Metastasis At P=0.020 Among Studied Variables. Pearson?s Correlation Between RTT And PTT Was Determined To Be R= 0.937, P<0.001 (95% CI 0.808-1.275) In TT < 4mm Group And R= 0.975, P<0.001 (95% CI 0.879-1.154) In TT?4mm Group.Conclusion: This Study Concludes That The Tumor Thickness Obtained From Ultrasonography, Which Is A Cheap And Readily Available Method Of Preoperative Examination, Is Significantlysimilar To The Tumor Thickness Of The Lesion Obtain After Pathological Examination, And Both Can Significantlypredict If There Is Cervical Nodal Metastasis When An Appropriate Cut Off Value Is Selected. These Findingsrecommend The Usage Of Preoperative Ultrasonography In The Preoperative Assessment Of Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma Cases And In The Planning Algorithm And Decision To Include Prophylactic Neck Dissection Or Not.KEYWORDS: BSCC, Buccal Squamou