Resumen
Surveillance methods for oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) patients may be chosen by considering the risk of recurrence. We performed a retrospective cohort study in 324 OSCC patients after complete surgical resection as the primary treatment from 2007 to 2020 at our hospital. Regarding the time to occurrence of postsurgical events, we found that half of cases of local recurrence, cervical lymph node, and distant metastasis occurred within 200 days, and 75% of all these events occurred within 400 days. However, the mean time for second primary cancer was 1589 days. The postsurgical events were detected by imaging examinations earlier than they were by visual examination and palpation. It is desirable to perform FDG-PET/CT within 3?6 months and at 1 year after surgery and to consider CECT as an option in between FDG-PET/CT, while continuing history and physical examinations for about 5 years based on an individual risk assessment.