Abstract
One hundred and thirty-eight cases of primary malignant tumor, treated at the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery at Saga Medical School from October 1981 to October 1991 were reviewed and clinically analyzed.
The patients included 84 men and 54 women, whose ages ranged from 16 to 93 years old with a mean age of 63.7. The locations of the 138 malignant tumors were as follows; 37 in the tongue, 29 in the lower gum, 26 in the oral floor, 15 in the upper gum, 11 in the hard palate, 6 in the buccal mucosa, 5 in the submandible, 4 in the maxilla, 2 in the mandible, one in the lower lip, one in the parotid gland, and one unknown site. Histopatologically, 117 cases were diagnosed as squamous cell carcinoma (including verrucous carcinoma), 8 cases as malignant lymphoma, 4 cases as adenocarcinoma, etc.
According to the UICC TNM classification of 1978, the 120 cases of primary oral cancer (except for maxillary sinus cases) were classified as 18 cases of T1, 55 cases of T2, 9 cases of T3, and 38 cases of T4. Among these, cervical lymph nodal metastasis was found in 58 cases. No cases of distant metastasis were observed among these primary cases. In terms of stage grouping, 16 cases were categorized as stage I, 28 cases as stage II, 26 cases as stage III, and 50 cases as stage IV.
Forty-eight cases were treated with a combination of chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and surgery (combined modality therapy), which was a predominant in all cases. Kaplan-Meier survival curves showed that the commulative survival rate of all the patients was 58.9 % for 5 years, and 63.7 % in the curative treatment group of cancer patients.
