Evaluation of clinical and histopathological parameters as potential predictors of occult metastases in sentinel lymph nodes of early oral cancer

Objects: Sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) for cN0 early oral cancer has been validated by numerous studies. Around 30% of SNLB will detect occult disease. Several clinical and histopathological features of the primary lesion have been claimed to be predictive for occult metastasis in elective neck dissections. The purpose of this study was to assess these factors in the context of SLNB.