A retrospective study was performed on 25 young adults (40 years old or younger) with oral cavity carcinoma at Akita University School of Medicine between June,1976 and March,1991. Most of the patients had tongue cancer (20 cases), and the others had cancer of the lower gum (2), upper gum (1), oral floor (1) and hard plate (1). On presentaiton,5cases were clinically T1,12 T2,7 T3 and 1 T4. Cervical lymph node swelling (N1_3) was seen in 8 cases (32.0%). Combined treatment of surgery after radio-chemotherapy was performed in 24 cases without one case of clear cell carcinoma of the hard plate, which was treated by only surgery. Recurrent lymph node metastasis during or after the treatment was observed in 4 of the 17 No cases, and pathological lymph node metastasis was observed in 1 patient. They were treated with radical neck dissection, but 2 patients died. There was a high incidence of nodal metastasis and recurrence in young adults, so its control is very important for the treatment. The 5-year survival rate in young adults was 79.8% in oral cavity cancer, and 74.7% in tongue cancer, which are similar to the rates in older patients. The prognosis of oral cavity cancer in young adults was not any worse than in older patients.
