A Prospective Study to Evaluate the Association of Sensory Dysregulation and Adverse Pathologic Features in Oral Tongue Cancers

To correlate sensory dysfunction with adverse pathologic factors for tongue cancers and determine the survival prognosticators.

We prospectively collected data on the pain sensation (Brief Pain Inventory), gustation (NIH Taste Intensity Test), proprioception (Two-point and light touch discrimination) from patients with squamous carcinoma of oral tongue, surgically treated between July 2021 and September 2022, and stratified them based on pT stage. The pathologist was blinded to the clinical data and correlation with the sensory dysregulations was obtained using a multivariate analysis. Factors predicting overall survival (OS) and disease specific survival (DSS) were calculated using Kaplan–Meier method.

100 patients were followed up with a median of 13 months. Radiating pain predicted advanced disease, extranodal extension (ENE) and perineural invasion (PNI). Loss of sweet and salty taste were associated with advanced disease, Depapillation and PNI. Among early tumors, 26% had taste alterations, with loss of sweet taste significantly associated with Depapillation and PNI. Loss of light touch was significantly associated with presence of PNI, while loss of two-point discrimination was associated with larger tumors, PNI and poor grade. The OS was significantly reduced when pain scores were moderate to severe at their least within 24 h from interview and loss of light touch.

Radiating pain, sweet and salty taste dysregulation and loss of sensory discrimination have a strong correlation with PNI and impact survival.