Disease-Free Overall Survival in Patients Operated for Poorly Differentiated Squamous Cell Carcinoma: A Research Protocol for a Retrospective Cohort Study

Introduction: Oral cavity cancer is the leading cause of cancerrelated death. Squamous Cell Carcinoma (SCC) is the most common malignant tumour of the oral cavity. The degree of differentiation of Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma (OSCC) has been related to several clinical features and outcomes, including prognosis. In OSCC with inferior tumour histological classifications, there is a substantial correlation between the likelihood of developing recurrence and distant metastasis after therapy and Extracapsular Spread (ECS) and perineural invasion of the main tumour. Need of the Study: Studying the Disease-Free Overall Survival (DFOS) postsurgery will help analyse and improve the efficacy of surgical intervention in controlling the disease and improving treatment strategies leading to better prognosis postsurgery in Poorly Differentiated Squamous Cell Carcinoma (PDSCC). Aim: To analyse the effects of surgical intervention (with or without adjuvant radiation or chemotherapy) in poorly differentiated OSCC patients by studying and analysing the DFOS postsurgery. Materials and Methods: An retrospective cohort study will be conducted in the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery at Sharad Pawar Dental College and Hospital, Wardha, Maharashtra, India from December 2024 to December 2025. The study will include 45 subjects who underwent surgical removal of lesions between January 2016 and January 2019 at Siddharth Gupta Memorial Cancer Hospital, AVBRH, Sawangi Wardha, Maharashtra, India. Medical records will be reviewed, and telephonic interviews will be conducted. Patients who have not had any follow-up appointments after five years will be contacted to confirm their survival. Subsequently, further clinical and radiological tests will determine the DFOS rate and the variables impacting long-term survival. The Kaplan Meiyer test will be applied to assess the long-term survival rate and factors that influence DFOS. Pearson/Spearman correlation test will be applied to assess the correlation between TNM staging and overall survival rate and a p-value of <0.05 will be considered statistically significant.