Tumor depth of invasion and prognosis of early‐stage oral squamous cell carcinoma: A meta‐analysis

OBJECTIVES: To assess the prognosis for early-stage oral squamous cell carcinoma according to tumor depth of invasion (DOI). METHODS: test. The certainty of evidence was assessed by Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE) approach. RESULTS: Twenty-seven studies were included (19 in the meta-analysis) with 2,404 patients with a mean of 60 years of age. High tumor DOI is associated with a greater chance of presenting lymph node metastasis, regardless of the cutoff point for DOI (13 meta-analysis; OR 1.69-53.08), recurrence (five meta-analysis; OR 1.22-3.83), and lower chance of survival (1 meta-analysis; OR 0.49). The certainty of evidence varied from very low to low. CONCLUSIONS: Tumor DOI is a good prognosticator for early-stage OSCC. The findings of the current meta-analysis highlight the clinical relevance of DOI and corroborate its incorporation for staging OSCC.