An evaluation of excisional biopsy for tongue carcinoma

An evaluation of excisional biopsy for tongue carcinoma (T1, T2) as a surgical treatment was performed. Forty-seven patients who received excisional biopsy among 394 patients with tongue carcinoma (T1, T2) treated in National Cancer Center Hospital during 24 years were examined. These patients were divided into following three groups: group a) patients treated with excisional biopsy only, group b) those treated with excisional biopsy and cryosurgery, group c) those treated with excisional biopsy and radiotherapy. We examined local control rate of these groups, degree of differentiation in histopathological examination, and median cancer free surgical margin. From these we obtained following results: 1) There was no significance in local control rate among these three groups (group a 77%, group b 84%, group c 45%) 2) There were no local recurrences in the patients with cancer free margin of 5 mm or more except when the histopathology showed perineural invasion, lymphatic vessel invasion, and/or deep invasion to the muscle. 3) Even if we had cancer positive surgical margin with excisional biopsy, we could obtain high local control rate (75%) with additional cryosurgery. We conclude that excisional biopsy for tongue carcinoma (T1, T2) is a good method for primary therapy.