No difference in disease-free survival after oral cancer resection with close tumor margins in patients with and without postoperative radiotherapy

We conducted a retrospective follow-up study to determine if adjunctive radiotherapy (RT) affected disease-free survival in patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) who were found to have close surgical margins after tumor resection. Our study population was made up of 110 patients-72 men and 38 women, aged 30 to 94 years (median: 66) at the time of diagnosis. Their follow-up ranged from 12 days to 5.2 years (median: 3.6 yr). Of this group, 40 patients had free margins, 55 patients had close margins, and 15 had involved margins after surgery. Only 31 of these patients received postoperative RT, including 17 who had close margins. We would expect to find better postoperative local tumor control with combined surgery and RT, but we found no statistically significant difference in disease free survival between the surgery-plus-RT group and the surgery-only group (p = 0.72). We also found no significant difference in disease free survival between patients with a tumor of the floor of mouth and those with a tumor of the tongue (p = 0.34). In the study population as a whole, the disease free survival rate was 81.0% and the overall survival rate was 78.2%. Our findings support the trend toward a watch-and-wait approach before initiating postoperative RT for patients with close surgical margins. The decision should be carefully discussed between the surgeon, the oncologic radiotherapist, and the patient.