[Surgical management of lower lip cancers]

We evaluated the results of surgical treatment of lower lip cancers.

The study included 47 patients (7 females, 40 males; mean age 53 years; range 34 to 71 years) who underwent surgery for primary lower lip carcinoma. Five patients received postoperative adjuvant radiotherapy. Data were reviewed on clinical features, risk factors, localization of the lesion, regional lymph node status, tumor staging, results of surgical treatment and pathological examination, locoregional recurrence, and prognosis. The mean follow-up period was 60.1 months (range 6 to 110 months).

Histopathologic diagnosis was squamous cell carcinoma in all cases. Tumor differentiation was good in 39 patients (83%), moderate in seven patients (15%), and poor in one patient (2%). Stage 1 tumor was seen in 29 patients (61%). T and N staging were as follows: 31 T1, 14 T2, 2 T3; 40 N0, 6 N1, and 1 N2. Histopathologically, three N0 patients (7%), four N1 patients (66%) had lymph node metastasis, and one N2 patient had extracapsular invasion. Three patients (6%) had perineural invasion. Local recurrence developed in one stage 1 patient (9%) and in one stage 2 patient (16%). Neck recurrence was seen in three patients (6%). One stage 4 patient developed distant metastasis two years after the diagnosis. Mortality occurred due to lip cancer in five patients (10%), and to other causes in seven patients (15%). Of 35 patients who survived, 34 (72%) were disease-free.

Due to its advantages, surgery should be the treatment of choice for cancers of the lower lip of any stage.