Background: In India, tongue carcinoma is the second most common carcinoma after gingivo-buccal carcinoma among oral cancers. The incidence of tongue carcinoma is on the rise in India as the data from most of the registry sites suggest. The most important prognostic factor in the case of tongue carcinoma is considered to be the presence and extent of cervical nodal metastasis. Objective: The present study was conducted to find out a cut-off value for tumor depth assessed by MRI for determination of nodal metastasis in cases of oral tongue carcinoma Material And Methods: It was a prospective observational study in which all new patients of stage I and stage II tongue carcinoma attending OPD in Yashoda Hospital, Somajiguda during the study period were investigated with Magnetic Resonance Imaging technique before undergoing surgery. The MRI findings were then compared with Histopathological findings obtained after surgery. The relationship between tumor depth as assessed by MRI and cervical nodal metastasis as assessed by histopathology were analyzed using appropriate statistical tests of significance and the cut-off value of tumor depth for predicting nodal metastasis was found by Receiver Operator Characteristic curve analysis. Results: It was found that mean tumor depth was 6.160 mm ± 2.485mm as assessed by MRI while the same based on histopathological examination was 5.625mm ± 2.187mm (p>0.05). It was found that the cervical nodal metastasis rate in cases with MRI tumor depth 9mm, it was 100%. The optimum cut off as calculated by computing Youden's index came out to be 7 mm in case of MRI determined tumor depth.
Abhishek et al. (Tue,) studied this question.