Distant bone metastases from carcinoma of the lip: a report of four cases

The lip is estimated to be the most frequent location for carcinoma of the oral cavity. It occurs more frequently in men, especially those with a history of exposure to sunlight. Despite the usually effective management, regional and occasionally distant metastases do occur, especially in advanced stages. In this retrospective analysis of patients with labial carcinoma presenting with distant bone metastases in 1995-2003, the extremely limited number of patients did not allow for multivariate data analysis. From a cohort of 415 patients presenting with lip lesions, 186 cases were diagnosed as carcinoma and managed accordingly. Four patients (2.14%) showed distant bone metastases, one with concurrent axillary node metastasis. Patient demographics, tumour characteristics, case management and survival were evaluated. The distant metastasis patients were of clinical stages II-IV; initial management was wide local excision with reconstruction for all cases, with one undergoing concurrent neck dissection and one adjuvant radiotherapy. Time for distant bone metastasis was 9-21 months, subsequent survival 3-14 months and overall survival 13-35 months. Distant metastases from labial carcinoma are rare, not exceeding 2%. Metastasis to bone and axillary lymph nodes is exceptionally rare and can be attributed to either inadequate initial management or aggressive tumour behaviour.