A histological and clinical study on oral cancer: descriptive analyses of 365 cases

Cancer is the second cause of death in Portugal right after cardio vascular diseases. In Portugal the incidence of oral and pharynx cancer (OPC) is higher than uterus and larynx cancers, and in US its frequency is higher than melanoma or uterus cancer, diseases that concern more population than oral cancer.

The aim of this paper is to identify preferable anatomic location for oral cancer, mean age of patients, the use of tobacco and alcohol, histological characteristics, staging, type of therapeutics, presence of metastases and 1 and 5 year follow up.

Data was collected from clinical charts of 365 cases from the Centro de Lisboa do Instituto Portugues de Oncologia with histological confirmation of malign tumor of the mouth. These cases are the total of oral malign tumors in the years of 1997, 1998 and 1999 in that institution.

We observe that despite modern diagnostic and treatment techniques 37,9% of all patients died after first year with evidence of tumor. From all patients just 23,7% were free of disease after 5 years of treatment. Tongue was the principal region affected and the average age was 62, 25 years. It was concluded that 57, 8% of patient were smokers and 43,8% were alcohol drinkers. A high number of patients were submitted to radiotherapy either alone or with other treatment options.