The Use of Intraoperative PET-CT in the Assessment of Surgical Margins for Patients With Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma.

BACKGROUND

The importance of ensuring clear margins following resection for oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) has been well described in the literature, however, accurate intra-operative assessment of tumor margins in these patients remains problematical. Positive margins are known to be associated with a significant reduction in survival and the addition of adjuvant radiotherapy for this group of patients does not change survival, meaning that patients are subjected to the additional co-morbidities of chemo-radiation.

METHOD: We describe the use of a novel intra-operative PET-CT scanner (Aura 10, Xeos, Ghent) to evaluate margin status for 18 patients undergoing excision of OSCC.

RESULTS

Intra-operative PET-CT showed a high positive predictive value for positive margins but was less accurate in confirming a negative margin.

CONCLUSION

This new technology shows early promise in improving margin resection rates in oral cancer patients but requires a larger sample size or multi-center trial for further evaluation.