MRI before biopsy may help determine depth of tumour invasion in tongue cancer: Study

Tongue cancer is a form of cancer that begins in the cells of the tongue. Several types of cancer can affect the tongue, but tongue cancer most often begins in the thin, flat squamous cells that line the surface of the tongue. The type of cells involved in your tongue cancer helps determine your prognosis and treatment.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate which radiological depth of invasion (r-DOI) measurement is the most concordant to clinical DOI (c-DOI) derived from correction for the shrinkage rate of the histopathological specimens.

The researchers retrospectively reviewed 128 patients with tongue carcinoma who had undergone glossectomy between 2006 and 2019. At first, the width shrinkage rate during formalin fixation and preparation process of histopathological specimens was evaluated. From the shrinking rates, a formula to calculate c-DOI from pathological DOI (p-DOI) was developed. The correlation between c-DOI and r-DOI was evaluated. The specimen shrinkage rate during the histopathological specimen preparation process was 10.3%.

The results of the study are as follows:

Based on the methods, the researchers yielded the correct formula for c-DOI based on p-DOI and preparation shrinkage rate: c-DOI = p-DOI × 100/89.7. The regression equations for the association of c-DOI with r-DOI measured by ultrasound (n = 128), MRI before biopsy (n = 18), and MRI after biopsy (n = 110) were y = 1.12 * x + 0.21, y = 0.89 * x - 0.26, and y = 0.52 * x + 2.63, respectively, while the coefficients of determination were 0.664, 0.891, and 0.422, respectively.

In conclusion, r-DOI using MRI before biopsy most strongly correlated with c-DOI.

Reference:

MRI before biopsy correlates with the depth of invasion corrected for shrinkage rate of the histopathological specimen in tongue carcinoma by Hiroyuki Harada et al. published in the Scientific Reports.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34697361/