Ninety-five patients, having squamous cell carcinoma of the lower alveolus and gingiva, underwent a potentially curative surgery at the Department of Oral Surgery, Hokkaido University Dental Hospital between 1975 and 1997. Marginal resection of the mandible has been performed for 47 patients and segmental resection has been done for 48 patients. Out of the 95 patients, 20 (21.1%) with local recurrence after initial surgical treatment were clinically investigated. Recurrence occurred in patients who showed moth-eaten type defect in preoperative radiographs. In three of the 20 patients, recurrence occurred near the margin of the resected mandible. Soft tissue recurrence occurred in 14 patients, i.e., four in the skin, three in the oropharyngeal isthmus, six in the floor of the mouth, and one in the submandibular region. In the other three cases, it could not be judged where the tumor recurred. The patients who showed moth-eaten type defect tended to have recurrence in the skin, in the oropharyngeal isthmus .
The median duration period between initial treatment and recurrence was 14.9 months (range, 1 to 68 months) . The duration period in cases with erosive type bone defect tended to be longer than in those with moth-eaten type bone defect.
The first local recurrence was treated by surgery in 13 patients as salvage, and 7 controlled locoregionally. Eleven of the 14 patients, who died of tumor, showed moth-eaten type bone defect in the preoperative radiographs. So the outcome of the patients who showed moth-eaten type defect was poor.
The percentage recurrence observed after therapy indicates that wider resection of the soft tissue surrounding the mandible is needed for the cases which showed moth-eaten type defect extended beyond the mandibular canal.
View full abstract