Effectiveness of Preoperative Lymphoscintigraphy for the Detection of Cervical Lymph Node Metastasis in Patients with Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma.

BACKGROUND: Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is one of the most common malignant tumor. OSCC is the malignancy of squamous epithelium of oral cavity, which is the sixth most common malignancy reported worldwide and one with highest mortality rate among all malignancies.

AIMS: The aims of this study is to assess the diagnostic performance of lymphoscintigraphy (LSG) for the detection of cervical lymph node metastasis in patients with OSCC.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: This was a prospective study done in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Department and National Institute of Nuclear Medicine and Allied Science, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University during July 2015-June 2016. Thirty-six patients with OSCC were included in this study. Radioisotope technique was used in the detection of cervical metastases in patients with histologically proven OSCC. Patients were assessed by LSG after diagnosis of OSCC, and then, it was compared with postoperative histopathology report.

RESULTS: Lymphoscintigraphically out of 36 patients, 23 had lymphatic channel obstruction where histologically 20 patients had lymph node metastasis. There were 20 true positive cases, 13 true negative cases, and 3 false positive cases but no false negative case was found. The test of validity result reveals that sensitivity 100.0%, specificity 81.25%, accuracy 96.66%, positive predictive value 86.96%, and negative predictive value 100.0%.

CONCLUSION: LSG for the detection of cervical lymph node metastasis has an important role for the management of OSCC. It is also cost-effective and decreases the morbidity.