Clinical Outcomes of Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma Patients Treated in National Cancer Center for Last 10 years

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: The result of all malignant neoplasms including oral cancer is decided by long-term prognosis. However, until now, there are only a few reports about long-term prognosis of cancer secluded in the oral cavity. So, we investigated all patients that visited our clinic for oral squamous cell carcinoma (SCCa) for the last 10 years. From this survey, we hope to find important factors that influence prognosis of the disease.PATIENTS AND METHODS: A retrospective study was performed for patients that visited the oral oncology clinic for oral cancers from Jan. 2001 to Feb. 2010. We selected the patients that were diagnosed with SCCa and received curative treatment. In these patients, we investigated basic epidemiology, smoking history, body mass index, recurrence rate, treatment methods, pathologic data and 5-yr survival rate.RESULTS: There was a total of 185 patients (115 males, 70 females and mean age 57.3 years) that visited the oral oncology clinic for oral SCCa. Areas of primary lesion were tongue (105 cases, 57%), lower gum (19 cases, 10%), floor of mouth (16 caess, 8%), retromolar trigone (12 cases, 6.5%), and buccal cheek (11 cases, 6%). Other involved areas were upper gum, palate, lip, and salivary glands-of 1 case each. The overall 5-year survival rate was 63.7%. The factors that influenced prognosis of the disease were stage of the disease, status of differentiation, recurrence, metastasis of cervical lymph node and age.CONCLUSION: The factors that influence prognosis of disease are stage of the disease, status of differentiation, recurrence, metastasis of cervical lymph node and age. To point out a current trend, the mean age of patients that developed oral cancer was lower than that of before. Secondly, the prevalence of oral cancer in non-smoker are on the rise. Thus, further studies on etiology and epidemiology should be done.