Association of Clinicopathological Parameters of Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma with Lymph Node Metastasis

Background: Lymph node (LN) metastasis, seen in 12-50% of oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) cases, is considered a key factor for cancer progression and aids with diagnosis and treatment planning. The objective of the study was to find the association of Clinicopathological Parameters of OSCC with Lymph Node Metastasis. Methods: For this cross-sectional study, a total of 150 OSCC biopsy specimens along with their reports were obtained from patients visiting the North Nazimabad campus of Ziauddin Hospital from March 2020 to March 2022 (RC: 6520123ZHOM) using a consecutive sampling technique. Data analysis was done with SPSS (v.21.0), and the Chi-square test or Fisher's exact test was used to find the association between Lymph node metastasis and clinicopathological parameters of OSCC. The p-value, lower than 0.05, was considered significant. Results: LN metastasis was present in 82 (54.7%) cases, whereas it was not present in 68 (45.3%) of OSCC cases. An insignificant association was found between the age of patients, muscle invasion, tumor grade and LN metastasis (P value > 0.05); however, with gender (P 0.027), tumor stage (P 0.00) site (P 0.013), size (P 0.00), peri-neural invasion (P 0.013), lympho-vascular invasion (P 0.00), and bone invasion (P 0.069) a significant relation was seen. Conclusion: A significant association of stage, site, size of the tumor, lympho-vascular invasion, and bone invasion was found with nodal metastasis in OSCC. Since patients with metastatic nodal involvement have a worse prognosis compared to those without such involvement, we propose taking these clinicopathological factors into account when deciding on the treatment and prognosis of OSCC.