[Squamous carcinoma of the lip. Review of 98 cases]

Squamous lip carcinoma. A review of 98 cases. Ninety-eight new cases of squamous lip carcinoma (87 males and 11 females), diagnosed over a 10 year period at the Institute of Pathological Anatomy of the University of Trieste were studied from an epidemiological point of view and in relation to their biological behaviour. The overall incidence was equal to 6.67%... in males and 0.73%... in females, with a male to female ratio of 9.2:1. The distribution of the cases can be directly correlated to age: the incidence in the 80-84 age group among males was 3 times greater than that in the 60-64 age group and 4 times greater than that in the 55-59 age group. Among females the highest number of cases occurred from 85 years of age upwards. The relative frequency of the carcinoma for each of the 3 epithelial surfaces was 46.9% for skin lesions (46 cases) and 50% (49 cases) for those on the vermilion, while the carcinoma originated in the internal mucosa in just 3 cases. In 11 cases the tumour had originated on the upper lip (8 males and 3 females, male to female ratio 2.6:1) and 6 of these were skin tumours. The relative frequency of skin neoplasms of the lip was 38.8% for 1978-81, 43.3% for 1982-85 and 64% for 1986-87. A study of the age specific incidence showed that the maximum number of cases occurred in the 75-84 age group (8.37%) for vermilion carcinomas and in patients over 85 (7.69%) for skin of lip carcinomas. In 17 patients the tumour was already infiltrating at the first biopsy (13% of skin carcinoma and 23% of carcinomas arising on the mucosa), and in 9 cases there were metastasis to the laterocervical nodes and/or salivary glands. In 14 patients the tumour recurred. From a study of the autopsies on the 27 patients who died it emerged that in 18 cases (66.6%) there was no tumour, nor was there any local infiltration or metastasis, while in 4 cases the tumour was still present and infiltrating the surrounding tissue. In 4 other cases the primary tumour was no longer present but metastasis and/or infiltration had developed. Associations with one or more malignant neoplasms of the oral cavity or the upper aerodigestive tract were noted in 9 cases.