Impact of lymphovascular invasion in oral squamous cell carcinoma: a meta-analysis

Abstract Objective The lymphovascular invasion (LVI) has been reported as a prognosis predictor in multiple cancers. The aim of this meta-analysis was to investigate the potential value of LVI as a prognostic predictor of oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). Study Design To identify relevant studies, PubMed, Embase, Web of Science and Cochrane Library database were searched from the inception until October 2020. All studies exploring the association of LVI with overall survival (OS), disease-specific survival (DSS) or disease-free survival (DFS), and lymph node metastasis (LNM) were identified. Result Pooled odds ratios for LNM and hazard ratios for survival were calculated by using the fixed effect model or random effect model. 36 studies involving 17109 OSCC patients were included and further analyzed. The results showed that positive LVI was significantly associated with LNM and worse survival in patients with OSCC. Moreover, positive LVI was also correlated with LNM in patients with early stage OSCC. Conclusions These findings indicate that LVI may potentially serve as a poor prognostic predictor for the metastasis and prognosis of OSCC, which could be considered as one of the routine pathological examination in clinical work.