TY - JOUR T1 - Surgical margins and nodal metastasis are prognostic factors in oral squamous cell carcinoma: A meta-analysis A1 - Mohammad Akheel A1 - Rinku George A1 - Amit Jain A1 - Qutubuddin Chahwala A1 - Ashmi Wadhwania JF - Clinical Cancer Investigation Journal JO - Clin Cancer Investig J SN - 2278-0513 Y1 - 2019 VL - 8 IS - 2 DO - 10.4103/ccij.ccij_21_19 SP - 47 EP - 51 N2 - Background: To find out whether surgical margins and nodal metastasis are prognostic factors in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). Materials and Methods: PubMed search was done to look for studies done on surgical margins and nodal metastasis of OSCC from 2008 to 2018. Results: Fixed effects meta-analysis showed a pooled estimate absolute risk reduction of −3% (95% confidence interval [CI] [−8, 2.5%]). P =0.2819 from the fixed margin model shows no statistically significant difference between close margins with cases of deaths due to recurrence or metastasis. The pooled odds ratio was 0.87 (95% CI 0.63–1.99, P = 0.3928) for the comparison between clear and closed margins for estimating the odds. It should be noted that the mean unweighted local recurrence rate for margins 5 mm or greater was 4.9% with 95% CI as −10.7%, 0.8%. Conclusion: The study shows that close surgical margins with nodal metastasis have a poor prognosis in OSCC; however, no statistical significance was seen in this meta-analysis. UR - https://ccij-online.org/article/surgical-margins-and-nodal-metastasis-are-prognostic-factors-in-oral-squamous-cell-carcinoma:-a-meta-analysis-783 ER -