WEDNESDAY, Jan. 20, 2016 (HealthDay News) -- For patients with oral cancer, fluorescence visualization (FV)-guided surgery is associated with a reduction in local recurrence, according to a study published online Jan. 14 in JAMA Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery.
Catherine F. Poh, D.D.S., Ph.D., from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, and colleagues examined the efficacy of FV-guided surgery in reducing locoregional recurrence and improving survival in a retrospective cohort study. Participants included 246 patients (aged 18 years or older) with a diagnosis of high-grade lesion (90 patients) or squamous cell carcinoma (156 patients) of less than 4 cm. Participants underwent surgery with FV guidance (154 patients) or conventional surgery (92 patients).
The researchers found that among patients with squamous cell carcinoma, the 92 who underwent surgery with FV guidance showed significant reduction in the three-year local recurrence rate versus those who underwent conventional surgery (6.5 versus 40.6 percent; P < 0.001). Of the patients with high-grade lesions, the 62 patients in the FV group showed a significant reduction in local recurrence rate (8.1 versus 39.3 percent; P < 0.001). Compared with conventional surgery, surgery with FV guidance for squamous cell carcinoma correlated with less regional failure and death, although the differences were not statistically significant.
"The use of FV as part of the surgical margin decision process significantly reduced the rate of local recurrence in pre-invasive high-grade and early-stage oral cancers," the authors write.
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