A retrospective review of lip squamous cell carcinoma characteristics as predictors of nodal spread

Current staging of Squamous Cell Carcinoma originating from the lip focuses on tumor size.  It was thought that this American Joint Committee on Cancer (tumor–node–metastasis) staging system, whilst practical, may have shortcomings in predicting the risk of loco-regional or metastatic spread of lip tumors. This is a research highlight of a recent study performed through a rural multidisciplinary head & neck cancer unit analyzing 68 patients with primary lip SCC’s [1] . Overall 12 patients developed metastasis with increased risk of spread in patients with tumors of increased thickness (U = 103.50; degrees of freedom = 68; p < 0.001), those with a larger overall tumor size (U = 163.50; degrees of freedom = 68; p = 0.005) and patients living further from the treatment center at time of disease diagnosis (U = 199.00; degrees of freedom = 68; p = 0.018).This suggests that factors other then overall tumor size/staging have an important prognostic & staging role in patients with SCC of the lip.