Abstract
Background
Cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (CSCC) is one of the most common skin cancers. Prognosis is favorable following surgical resection of early-stage disease, but the management of the metastatic disease is challenging. Several prognostic risk factors have been described in the American Joint Committee on Cancer/the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC) 8th edition staging and the Brigham and Women’s Hospital T classification system. However, their clinical validity in Asian populations is unclear because of racial differences in the clinical characteristics of CSCC. This study aimed to identify factors that could predict lymph node metastasis in Asian patients.
Methods
This retrospective single-center study evaluated 540 patients with primary CSCC between 1989 and 2013. Five factors were evaluated for their ability to predict lymph node metastasis: maximum tumor diameter, tumor thickness, depth of invasion, degree of differentiation, and infiltrative growth pattern (INF).
Results
Tumor diameter > 2 cm (p < 0.0001), tumor thickness > 6 mm (p < 0.0001), invasion beyond the subcutaneous fat (p < 0.0001), poor differentiation (p = 0.042), and INFc infiltration (p < 0.0001) were associated with lymph node metastasis in the univariate analyses. In the multivariate analysis, lymph node metastasis was independently associated with tumor size > 2 cm [hazard ratio (HR) 2.9, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.4–6.2; p = 0.006], tumor thickness > 6.0 mm (HR 2.9, 95% CI 1.3–6.4; p = 0.007), and invasion beyond the subcutaneous fat (HR 2.3, 95% CI 1.0–5.1; p = 0.045).
Conclusion
Larger tumor diameter, greater tumor thickness, and deeper invasion included in the UICC T classification system are associated with increased risks of lymph node metastasis from CSCC in Japanese patients.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Karia PS, Han J, Schmults CD (2013) Cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma: estimated incidence of disease, nodal metastasis, and deaths from disease in the United States, 2012. J Am Acad Dermatol 68:957–966
Brantsch KD, Meisner C, Schönfisch B et al (2008) Analysis of risk factors determining prognosis of cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma: a prospective study. Lancet Oncol 9:713–720
Hillen U, Leiter U, Haase S et al (2018) Advanced cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma: a retrospective analysis of patient profiles and treatment patterns-results of a non-interventional study of the DeCOG. Eur J Cancer 96:34–43
Haisma MS, Plaat BEC, Bijl HP et al (2016) Multivariate analysis of potential risk factors for lymph node metastasis in patients with cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck. J Am Acad Dermatol 75:722–730
Mullen JT, Feng L, Xing Y et al (2006) Invasive squamous cell carcinoma of the skin: defining a high-risk group. Ann Surg Oncol 13:902–909
Schmults CD, Karia PS, Carter JB et al (2013) Factors predictive of recurrence and death from cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma. JAMA Dermatol 149:541–547
Eigentler TK, Leiter U, Hafner HM et al (2017) Survival of patients with cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma: results of a prospective cohort study. J Invest Dermatol 137:2309–2315
Brougham ND, Dennett ER, Cameron R et al (2012) The incidence of metastasis from cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma and the impact of its risk factors. J Surg Oncol 106:811–815
Rowe DE, Carroll RJ, Day CL (1992) Prognostic factors for local recurrence, metastasis, and survival rates in squamous cell carcinoma of the skin, ear, and lip. Implications for treatment modality selection. J Am Acad Dermatol 26:976–990
Ishihara K, Saida T, Otsuka F et al (2008) Statistical profiles of malignant melanoma and other skin cancers in Japan: 2007 update. Int J Clin Oncol 13:33–41
Breslow A (1970) Thickness, cross-sectional areas and depth of invasion in the prognosis of cutaneous melanoma. Ann Surg 172:902–908
Breuninger H, Schaumburg-Lever G, Holzschuh J et al (1997) Desmoplastic squamous cell carcinoma of skin and vermilion surface: a highly malignant subtype of skin cancer. Cancer 79:915–919
Saito H, Miyatani K, Takaya S et al (2015) Tumor infiltration pattern into the surrounding tissue has prognostic significance in advanced gastric cancer. Virchows Arch 467:519–523
Kanda Y (2013) Investigation of the freely available easy-to-use software ‘EZR’ for medical statistics. Bone Marrow Transplant 48:452–458
Veness MJ, Palme CE, Smith M et al (2003) Cutaneous head and neck squamous cell carcinoma metastatic to cervical lymph nodes (nonparotid): a better outcome with surgery and adjuvant radiotherapy. Laryngoscope 113:1827–1833
Bander TS, Nehal KS, Lee EH (2019) Cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma: updates in staging and management. Dermatol Clin 37:241–251
Schmitt AR, Brewer JD, Bordeaux JS et al (2014) Staging for cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma as a predictor of sentinel lymph node biopsy results: meta-analysis of American Joint Committee on Cancer criteria and a proposed alternative system. JAMA Dermatol 150:19–24
Karia PS, Jambusaria-Pahlajani A, Harrington DP et al (2014) Evaluation of American Joint Committee on Cancer, International Union Against Cancer, and Brigham and Women’s Hospital tumor staging for cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma. J Clin Oncol 32:327–334
Feinstein S, Higgins S, Ahadiat O et al (2019) A retrospective cohort study of cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma with lymph node metastasis: risk factors and clinical course. Dermatol Surg 45:772–781
Manyam BV, Gastman B, Zhang AY et al (2015) Inferior outcomes in immunosuppressed patients with high-risk cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck treated with surgery and radiation therapy. J Am Acad Dermatol 73:221–227
Imao T, Ichimaru N, Takahara S et al (2007) Risk factors for malignancy in Japanese renal transplant recipients. Cancer 109:2109–2115
Morton DL, Thompson JF, Cochran AJ et al (2014) Final trial report of sentinel-node biopsy versus nodal observation in melanoma. N Engl J Med 370:599–609
Reynolds C, Mick R, Donohue JH et al (1999) Sentinel lymph node biopsy with metastasis: can axillary dissection be avoided in some patients with breast cancer? J Clin Oncol 17:1720–1726
Gunaratne DA, Howle JR, Veness MJ (2016) Sentinel lymph node biopsy in Merkel cell carcinoma: a 15 year institutional experience and statistical analysis of 721 reported cases. Br J Dermatol 174:273–281
Tejera-Vaquerizo A, García-Doval I, Llombart B et al (2018) Systematic review of the prevalence of nodal metastases and the prognostic utility of sentinel lymph node biopsy in cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma. J Dermatol 45:781–790
Krediet JT, Beyer M, Lenz K et al (2015) Sentinel lymph node biopsy and risk factors for predicting metastasis in cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma. Br J Dermatol 172:1029–1036
Ahmed MM, Moore BA, Schmalbach CE (2014) Utility of head and neck cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma sentinel node biopsy: a systematic review. Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg 150:180–187
Acknowledgements
This work was supported in part by the National Cancer Center Research and Development Fund (2020-J-3). We thank Editage (www.editage.jp) for English language editing.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
YS: Designed and performed experiments, analysed data and co-wrote the paper. HF: Designed and performed experiments, analysed data. ST, RA: Performed experiments. TT: Designed experiments and co-wrote the paper.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflicts of interest
The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
About this article
Cite this article
Saito, Y., Fujikawa, H., Takatsuka, S. et al. Risk factors for lymph node metastasis in cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma: a long-term retrospective study of Japanese patients. Int J Clin Oncol 26, 606–612 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10147-020-01830-7
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10147-020-01830-7