Abstract
During the period from 2002 to 2008, 31 patients who had undergone a resection of upper gingival carcinoma were reviewed. We divided the surgical approach for the initial treatment of upper gingival carcinoma into the following four types: 1. membrane resection, 2. alveolar bone resection, 3. partial maxillectomy, and 4. total maxillectomy. Two patients underwent a membrane resection, 4 patients underwent alveolar bone resection, 19 patients underwent partial maxillectomy, and 6 patients underwent total maxillectomy. Regarding the histological differentiation of the 31 cases, 19 (61.3%) cases were diagnosed as having either verrucous carcinoma or well-differentiated squamous carcinoma. Of these 31 cases, 12 cases demonstrated a disease relapse and the relapse-free 5-year survival rate was 56.2%. Of those 12 recurrent cases, 8 cases survived after salvage treatment, and the final overall 5-year survival rate was 83.9%. In 5 cases which had recurrence in only the cervical lymph nodes, 4 cases survived after salvage surgery. On the other hand, of the 6 cases who demonstrated local recurrence, only half of the cases survived after salvage treatment. It is suggested that a proper margin from the tumor during the initial surgery plays a very important role in the control of disease.
