Oral Oncology Reports (Sep 2023)
Prevalence and prognostic merit of paraesthesia in lower jaw osteosarcoma: A meta-analysis
Abstract
Objective: Craniofacial osteosarcoma is an uncommon malignancy accounting for 6–13% of all osteosarcomas. Paraesthesia associated with mandibular osteosarcoma is frequently observed; however, not thoroughly analysed. We performed a meta-analysis to assess the prevalence and prognostic value of paraesthesia in patients with mandibular OS, including its relationship with other disease-related factors and impact on therapeutic outcomes. Materials and methods: A search was conducted on four electronic literature databases. 556 patient cases were included. Paraesthesia, gender, histologic type, site, pain, treatment modalities, recurrence, metastasis, and overall survival were assessed. Chi-square tests were used to investigate a possible relationship between each of the previously mentioned factors and paraesthesia as an isolated symptom. Symmetric measures were used to analyze the strength of the relationships. Post hoc tests were utilized to detect statistically significant combinations. Kaplan-meier curves and multivariate analyses were used to assess survival related models. Results: 45.7% of the cases were of the osteoblastic subtype and the mandibular body was the most frequent site of occurrence. 24.8% of cases reported paraesthesia. Strong evidence of a statistically significant relationship between paraesthesia and the histologically unusual forms of OS was found (p = 0.0006). The estimated median survival time of the group negative for paraesthesia was higher than that of the group positive for it. Conclusion: This study shows that presence of paraesthesia is more commonly associated with the unusual forms of OS. It also points towards a lack of association between paraesthesia and survival, thus indicating its not a prognostic factor for patients with mandibular OS.
