TABLE 1.
Categorical demographics, treatment characteristics, and histopathologic characteristics of patients with negative, minor, and major extracapsular spread.
| Categorical variables | Negative ECS (n = 136) No. of patients (%) |
Minor ECS (n = 52) No. of patients (%) |
Major ECS (n = 57) No. of patients (%) |
p value Neg vs min |
p value Min vs major |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sex, male | 84 (55) | 28 (18) | 40 (26) | .322 | .079 |
| Tobacco, never | 35 (52) | 20 (30) | 12 (18) | .086 | .076 |
| Alcohol, never | 37 (73) | 1 (2) | 13 (25) | .457 | .248 |
| cN status, N0 | 63 (64) | 25 (25) | 11 (11) | .829 | .001 |
| Subsite | |||||
| Buccal mucosa | 13 (62) | 5 (24) | 3 (14) | 1.000* | .475* |
| Tongue | 58 (58) | 15 (15) | 27 (27) | .082 | .047 |
| Floor of mouth | 21 (45) | 17 (36) | 9 (19) | .008 | .045* |
| Hard palate/upper gum | 5 (63) | 1 (12.5) | 2 (2.5) | 1.000* | 1.000* |
| Lower gum | 24 (62) | 9 (23) | 6 (15) | .956 | .305 |
| Retromolar trigone | 15 (54) | 5 (18) | 8 (29) | .778 | .477 |
| VI, present | 19 (35) | 16 (29) | 20 (36) | .002 | .984 |
| PNI, present | 46 (46) | 21 (21) | 33 (33) | .132 | .196 |
| Margin status, close/positive | 63 (52.5) | 27 (22.5) | 30 (25) | .492 | .941 |
| pT status | |||||
| T1 | 45 (67) | 16 (24) | 6 (9) | .751 | .007 |
| T2 | 36 (57) | 11 (17) | 16 (25) | .444 | .436 |
| T3 | 8 (47) | 5 (29) | 4 (24) | .354* | .732* |
| T4 | 44 (47) | 19 (20) | 31 (33) | .593 | .075 |
| pN status | |||||
| N1 | 72 (86) | 11 (13) | 1 (1) | < .001 | .001 |
| N2 | 64 (41) | 40 (25) | 53 (34) | < .001 | .018 |
| N3 | 0 (0) | 1 (25) | 3 (75) | .277* | .354* |
| Muscle invasion, present | NA | 1 (12.5) | 7 (87.5) | NA | .063* |
| Desmoplasia, present | NA | 48 (47) | 55 (53) | NA | .422* |
| PORT, yes | 96 (61) | 32 (20) | 30 (19) | .234 | .348 |
| PORT + chemotherapy, yes | 10 (40) | 6 (24) | 9 (36) | .386* | .520 |
Abbreviations: ECS, extracapsular spread; Neg, negative; Min, minimum; VI, vascular invasion; PNI, perineural invasion; NA, not applicable; PORT, postoperative radiotherapy.
*
Denotes Fisher’s exact test. All other tests with categorical variables were performed using Pearson’s Chi-square test. All tests with continuous variables were performed using an independent sample t test.