PREDICTING MANDIBULAR INVASION IN MOUTH CANCER

This study assesses the role of orthopantomography, computerized tomog raphy and intra-operative assessment in predicting the presence and ex tent of mandibular invasion by mouth tumours. Forty patients with squa mous carcinoma of the oral cavity and oropharynx were studied. All had pre-operative orthopantomography and computerized tomography as well as intra-operative assessment of mandibular invasion and these factors were compared with the actual histological invasion to assess the rol e of each test. This study found that negative radiology is useful for excluding cortical invasion and as might be expected is of no real va lue in excluding periosteal invasion, a positive orthopantomogram accu rately predicts invasion at least into the cortex, however, a positive CT must be judged cautiously due to false positives and intra-operati ve assessment by an experienced operator is a useful adjunct to radiol ogy.