[Analysis of 7878 patients with tumors in the head and neck]

7878 patients with tumors in the head and neck confirmed by pathology from Jan. 1961 to Dec. 1981 are analysed. In this series, there were 5485 malignant tumors and 2393 benign. In malignant tumors, the ratio of male to female was 2.84:1 while the mean age incidence was 53.38 years. Nearly half of malignant tumors were in the nasopharynx (49.32%). Of the 2716 nasopharyngeal malignant tumors, 2698 were carcinoma and only 18 sarcoma. Male was 3.5 times higher than female. The mean age of NPC was 53.64 years in male and 52.33 years in female. Nine of them were under 10 years of age and the youngest was 3 years old. There was 87.06% of squamous cell carcinoma in NPC. Adenocarcinoma was predominant in the minor salivary gland carcinomas. The malignant tumors in the eyeball were glioma retinae of which 96.15% was under 10 years of age. The common metastatic tumor in the neck was squamous cell carcinoma. The incidence of head and neck tumors was 37.66% and that of the head and neck malignancies was 26.22% of tumors in the whole body. This study indicates that the incidence of malignant tumor in the head and neck is rather high.