Lip and intraoral tumours: a local perspective

Lip and intra-oral cancer is an uncommon disease in Singapore among the local population. The incidence is less than 1.5% of all cancers reported to the Singapore Cancer Registry which recorded a total of 18,049 cases of all types of cancer in a 5-year period from 1978 to 1982. The Department of Plastic Surgery at Singapore General Hospital has been conducting a multidisciplinary clinic for the management of head and neck tumours since 1984. The results of the distribution, age, sex and racial differences, risk factors and modalities of treatment of the various types of cancer affecting the lip and intraoral region were analysed in a prospective study. A total of 69 cases were analysed and of these 59 (85.5%) were squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of varying grades of malignancy, the remaining comprising adenoidcystic and mucoepidermoid carcinoma, malignant melanoma and a single case of ameloblastoma. A number of predisposing factors such as smoking, alcohol and the chewing of betel nuts could be identified in the history of patients suffering from cancers involving the buccal mucosa and tongue. As the numbers involved in non-SCC are small in this study, the discussion will be confined to patients presenting with squamous cell carcinoma only.