Optical Coherence Tomography for Invasive Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma: Diagnostic Accuracy and Grade- and Subsite-Associated Imaging Features.

Background

Early and accurate diagnosis remains crucial to improving outcomes in oral cancer. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) offers real-time, high-resolution imaging that may support diagnosis and treatment planning in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC).

Methods

In this prospective study, preoperative OCT scans were obtained from 68 histologically confirmed OSCC lesions, with 30 paired adjacent mucosa samples from the same patients as histologically negative comparators (diagnostic dataset: 98 lesions). OCT findings were compared with histopathology for diagnostic performance, OCT biomarker patterns by tumour grade, tumour depth measurement, margin assessment, and subsite-specific performance.

Results

OCT demonstrated 98.5% sensitivity, 96.7% specificity, and an AUC of 0.98 for detection of invasive OSCC. OCT biomarkers-including abnormal epithelial architecture with variable epithelial thickness, stratification loss, basement membrane disruption, and increased subepithelial reflectivity-varied systematically with tumour differentiation grade. Tumour depth measurements showed acceptable agreement with histology, while margin definition was correct in 80% of cases. Performance was highest in the tongue and the floor of the mouth, with reduced performance in posterior/keratinised subsites. Image artefacts occurred in 5.1% of scans.

Conclusions

OCT provides a reproducible, real-time adjunct for diagnosis, margin planning, and lesion stratification in OSCC, with recognised limitations related to light attenuation and operator-dependent factors. Multicentre validation and integration with digital interpretation platforms are warranted.