Abstract
Fifty-three patients with gingival carcinomas treated by surgery after preoperative chemotherapy were studied with respect to clinical and histopathological significance of preoperative chemotherapy based on the results of treatment and by histologic grading of malignancy. The results were as follows:
1. There was no significant difference in the effects of preoperative chemotherapy between patient groups classified by clinical findings or histological differentiation of carcinomas, while preoperative chemotherapy was more effective and therapeutic results were better in patients with lower and moderate histological malignancy than with high malignancy.
2. As a result of preoperative chemotherapy, grade of each histological malignancy evaluation parameter tended to decrease. Better results were obtained with respect to the five-year survival rate and metastatic rate in patients showing decreased malignancy after preoperative chemotherapy.
3. The results suggested that preoperative chemotherapy is effective for treatment of gingival carcinomas with low histological malignancy and may contribute to better therapeutic results.
4. The presence or absence of epithelial dysplasia in the surgical margin was added to the conventional parameters of histologic grading of malignancy, and evaluation was done. As a result, the outcome of gingival carcinomas was poor when the scores of the mode of infiltration and surgical margin were high.
