TOLUIDINE BLUE VERSUS FROZEN SECTIONS FOR ASSESSMENT OF TUMOR MARGINS IN ORAL SQUAMOUS CELL CARCINOMA

Abstract

The aim of this study was to test the accuracy of TB in the assessment of intraoperative tumor-free margins after excision of OSCC in comparison to H&E stain on FS. A total of thirty patients with primary OSCC as proven by preoperative biopsy and undergone surgical resection were selected from Surgical Pathology Unit at NCI, Cairo University- Egypt. From the 30 patients enrolled in this study, 19 (63.3%) patients were males and 11 (36.7%) were females. The mean of age was 54.4 ± 12.29 years (23-75). Total of 140 surgical margins from thirty patient’s surgical specimen were examined intraoperatively by both TB staining followed by FS. For TB, the interpretation of staining results was done as following: only royal blue staining was recorded as positive, while margins with pale or light blue in colour or no staining were recorded as negative. For FS, tumor margins with criteria of malignancy were considered as positive, while margins with no criteria of malignancy were considered as negative. Of the 140 examined margins, 14 stained positive with TB, sex margins were positive on final histopathology. TB staining had sensitivity and specificity of 100% and 94.03%, respectively. The diagnostic accuracy of TB was found to be 94.29% with PPV of 42.86% and NPV of 100%. While FS had sensitivity and specificity of 50% and 100% respectively. The diagnostic accuracy of FS was found to be 97.86% with PPV of 100% and NPV 97.81%.