Oral cavity squamous cell carcinoma: impact of clear margin distance on locoregional control in patients undergoing postoperative radiotherapy

Abstract

We congratulate Lang and colleagues for their study investigating the impact of resection margin (RM) size on locoregional control (LC) outcomes, overall survival (OS), progression-free survival (PFS), and treatment-related toxicity in 162 patients with oral cavity squamous cell carcinoma (OCSCC) who received postoperative radiotherapy (PORT).1 In this study, 77 (47.5%), 22 (13.6%), and 63 (38.9%) patients had involved (5 mm) RM, respectively. A RM of <= 5 mm was found to be a significant predictor for worse LC (HR 2.6), but not for OS (HR 1.2) or PFS (HR 1.2). The findings of this study provide important insights into how the status of RM affects the local control and survival outcomes of OCSCC patients who undergo PORT. However, we have two concerns that we believe need to be addressed to interpret the results more comprehensively and guide future research on this critical topic.