Surgical margins for the extirpation of oral cancer

The surgical margin, called the surgical safety margin, is an important consideration when resecting primary oral cancers. However, what is an adequate surgical margin is unclear. Moreover, many resection margins are deemed negative or “free” if the frozen section is negative, regardless of the proximity of the margin to the tumor mass. In a review of surgical margins in head and neck cancer, 90% of surgeons considered the final resection margin to be negative if further supplemental margins were negative, even if the initial frozen section margins were positive1.