Tumors metastasizing to the oral cavity: a study of 16 cases

An analysis was performed of the clinical and epidemiologic characteristics of a group of patients diagnosed with oral metastases of distant primary tumors or unknown primary malignancies.

The study series consisted of 16 patients with oral metastatic lesions seen in the Department of Stomatology and Maxillofacial Surgery, Valencia University General Hospital (Valencia, Spain) that had been diagnosed in the previous 15 years. A retrospective analysis was made of patient age and gender, clinical characteristics of metastatic lesions, location of the primary tumor, and time elapsed from diagnosis to the death of a patient.

There were 13 male and 3 female patients (mean age, 58.8 years). Ten patients had been diagnosed previously and were being treated for a primary tumor; 2 patients were diagnosed with a primary malignancy in the department; and 4 patients presented with an unidentified primary tumor (metastatic disease diagnosed from biopsy study). The predominant clinical presentation was mixed soft tissue and bone metastases followed by solely soft tissue lesions and solely bone lesions. Some patients showed no apparent oral lesions. Primary malignancies originated mainly from the lung followed by the prostate, gastrointestinal tract, thyroid gland, breast, and liver. Mean survival from diagnosis of oral metastases was 8.25 months.

Oral metastatic lesions are infrequent, can affect male and female patients equally, can manifest at any age, and may constitute the first manifestation of a still unidentified primary malignancy. According to the literature, bone metastases are more common than soft tissue metastases. Nevertheless, in the present series, there was a clear male predominance, and the oral metastases showed a predominance of mixed presentations followed by solely soft tissue lesions and solely bone metastases.