Relationships between Tumor Volume and Lymphatic Metastasis and Prognosis in Early Oral Tongue Cancer

OBJECTIVES: Although T stage is an important prognostic tool for oral tongue cancer, it fails to define the depth of invasion and true three-dimensional volume of primary tumors. The purpose of this paper is to determine the relations between tumor volume and lymph node metastasis and survival in early oral tongue cancer. METHODS: Forty-seven patients with T1-2 tongue cancer were included. Tumor volumes were measured by the computerized segmentation of T2-weighted magnetic resonance imaging. RESULTS: The overall average tumor volume was 27.7 cm(3) (range, 1.4 to 60.1 cm(3)). A significant positive correlation was found between tumor volume and pathological T stage, depth of invasion, and cervical lymph node metastasis (P