439 An epidemiological study of squamous cell carcinomas of head and neck region

Abstract

Of 1518 patients admitting to Department of Radiation Oncology from 1978 to 1994 with cancers of head and neck region, medical reports of 1293 patients with squamous cell carcinomas were retrospectively evaluated. The patients were classified according their age, sex, tumor localization and stage of tumor at presentation. Staging was performed according to TNM classification by American Joint Commitee (AJC). 1181 patients (91.3%) were male and 112 (8.7%) were female, with a male:female ratio of 10.5:1. The tumor was localized in larynx in 919 (71.1%) patients, nasopharynx in 131 (10.1%), oral cavity in 59 (4.6%), lip in 54 (4.2%), oropharynx in 33 (2.5%), hypopharynx in 31 (2.4%), paranasal sinuses in 20 (1.5%), external auditory canal in 17 (1.3%) and nasal cavity in 5 (0.4%) and other regions in 24 (1.9%) patients. Peak incidence was similar for all localizations and was observed in the fifth decade. Larynx cancers were most commonly localized in the supraglottic region (59.5%), followed by glottic (39.7%) and subglottic (0.8%) regions. Seventy-four percent of glottic larynx carcinomas were either stage I or II. Invasion of cartilage was relatively more common with supraglottic carcinomas than with glottic and subglottic carcinomas. Male:female ratio for larynx carcinomas was 29.6: 1.