Image-Guided Intraoperative Assessment of Surgical Margins in Oral Cavity Squamous Cell Cancer: A Diagnostic Test Accuracy Review

(1) Background: The assessment of resection margins during surgery of oral cavity squamous cell cancer (OCSCC) dramatically impacts the prognosis of the patient as well as the need for adjuvant treatment in the future. Currently there is an unmet need to improve OCSCC surgical margins which appear to be involved in around 45% cases. Intraoperative imaging techniques, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and intraoral ultrasound (ioUS), have emerged as promising tools in guiding surgical resection, although the number of studies available on this subject is still low. The aim of this diagnostic test accuracy (DTA) review is to investigate the accuracy of intraoperative imaging in the assessment of OCSCC margins. (2) Methods: By using the Cochrane-supported platform Review Manager version 5.4, a systematic search was performed on the online databases MEDLINE-EMBASE-CENTRAL using the keywords “oral cavity cancer, squamous cell carcinoma, tongue cancer, surgical margins, magnetic resonance imaging, intraoperative, intra-oral ultrasound”. (3) Results: Ten papers were identified for full-text analysis. The negative predictive value (cutoff < 5 mm) for ioUS ranged from 0.55 to 0.91, that of MRI ranged from 0.5 to 0.91; accuracy analysis performed on four selected studies showed a sensitivity ranging from 0.07 to 0.75 and specificity ranging from 0.81 to 1. Image guidance allowed for a mean improvement in free margin resection of 35%. (4) Conclusions: IoUS shows comparable accuracy to that of ex vivo MRI for the assessment of close and involved surgical margins, and should be preferred as the more affordable and reproducible technique. Both techniques showed higher diagnostic yield if applied to early OCSCC (T1–T2 stages), and when histology is favorable.