External validation of the AJCC Cancer Staging Manual, 8th edition, in an independent cohort of oral cancer patients (original) (raw)

To evaluate the new American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) cancer staging manual (8th edition) in an independent cohort of patients surgically treated for oral squamous cell carcinoma in order to determine whether the upstaging of pT and pN classification was indicative of a worse prognosis. A cohort of 298 patients was analyzed retrospectively. Of these patients, 22.8% received an upstaging when the depth of invasion was included into the pT classification. Similarly, 29.2% of them were upstaged when extracapsular extension was added to pN classification. Twenty-eight of 68 patients (41.2%) that received an upstaging of pT classification died, and 23 (33.8%) experienced disease recurrence compared to 98/229 (42.8%) and 68/229 (29.7%), respectively, for those with the same pT during follow-up. With regard to pN classification, 70.6% of upstaged patients (60/85) died, and 50.6% (43/85) developed recurrence of the disease compared to 63/205 (30.7%) and 42/205 (20.5%), respectively,...