Background: This single institutional retrospective study aims to assess the results of curative surgery with and without post-operative radiotherapy in patients with  squamous cell carcinoma of anterior 2/3^rd of the tongue and to evaluate the factors affecting survival in such cases.

Methods: Retrospective analysis of 79 cases of  squamous cell carcinoma of anterior 2/3^rd of the tongue who presented at the Department of Radiotherapy, Medical College and Hospital, Kolkata between January 2012 and December 2014. Patient characteristics, tumour characteristics, treatment modality and survival patterns were analysed. Statistical analysis was done using IBM SPSS Version 23.

Results: Mean age of presentation was 47 years with Male: Female ratio of 2.6:1.All patients underwent primary surgery, 26.58% had a WLE and the rest underwent a hemiglossectomy. Neck dissection was done in 74 of the patients, mostly supra-omohyoid. Of the factors that were assessed, close surgical margins, depth of invasion more than 5mm and poor histological grade were those that significantly affected the outcomes. Two year disease free survival was 65.8%. Post-operative radiotherapy was not found to be statistically significant in affecting survival.

Conclusion: In  squamous cell carcinoma of anterior 2/3^rd of the tongue, factors which affected prognosis were higher tumour grade, close surgical margins and depth of tumour invasion more than 5 mm. Post-operative radiotherapy should be considered in such patients with high risk pathological features.

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Dr Praloy Basu