Involved margin of tongue cancer: the impact of tumor satellites on prognosis.

BACKGROUND Surgical margin is important to evaluate the adequacy of surgery related to tongue cancer. Despite the distances of margins, tumor components comprising the involved margins should also be investigated. Our aim was to explore the influences of tumor satellites on the clinical outcomes of involved margins. METHODS Two hundred twenty-five patients with fresh tongue cancer were investigated. Nineteen patients with pathologically confirmed involved margins were enrolled. Based on the analysis of tumor components of involved margins, they were classified into 2 groups of either tumor-satellite involved margins (SMs) or main-tumor involved margins (MMs). RESULTS The results showed that the clinical stages distribution was different: advanced stages in the MM group, and earlier in SM (p = .028). SM group had a higher incidence of neck recurrence (p = .040). Nonetheless, no difference in the disease-specific survival was noted. CONCLUSION Tumor-satellite involved margins should be regarded as a worse prognosticator in tongue cancer.