Độ sâu xâm lấn trên cộng hưởng từ và tình trạng di căn hạch cổ ở ung thư lưỡi

Abstract

This study evaluated the association between radiologic depth of invasion (rDOI) on magnetic resonance imaging and cervical nodal status confirmed by postoperative histopathology in tongue cancer, and explored the performance of an rDOI > 10 mm threshold in the study dataset. A single-center combined retrospective-prospective descriptive study was conducted on 32 patients who underwent pre-treatment MRI, surgery, and histopathology at the National Otorhinolaryngology Hospital from January 2022 to January 2026. Mean rDOI was 10.41 ± 4.52 mm. No nodal metastasis was observed in the rDOI ≤ 10 mm group, whereas all six metastatic cases were found in the rDOI > 10 mm group (p = 0.03). The ROC curve constructed from continuous rDOI values showed an AUC of 0.66. At the >10 mm cutoff, sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value, and accuracy were 100%, 50%, 31.6%, 100%, and 59.4%, respectively. MRI-derived rDOI may be a useful preoperative parameter for risk stratification, but the findings should be interpreted cautiously because of the small sample size of the aforementioned study, wide confidence intervals, and the stronger value of rDOI for ruling out rather than confirming nodal metastasis.