Epidemiology of the head and neck carcinoma of northern Portugal between 1986-2009.

Abstract

e16035 Background: Few cancers translate functional and physical damage as severe as those of head and neck carcinomas (HNC). Whether the damage caused to the ability of speech, swallowing or breathing, or by changes to the image of the patient, or motivated by surgical mutilations often necessary (eg tracheostomy, nasogastric tube), probes that HNC has great personal and social impact. Methods: Epidemiological retrospective, not interventional, study. Data were obtained and collected retrospectively from crossing database from the cancer registry, the computer records and clinical files from patients. For survival, the cases were analyzed from date of diagnosis (up to December 2009) until the last available assessment. Descriptive analysis of data treatment and follow-up, which shows the absolute and relative frequencies of various neoplasms, stratified by year, diagnosis and stage. Results: From 7321 patients admitted between 1986 and 2009 with a diagnosis of HNC, there were 3889 deaths. The majority (35.6%) cases occurred in the pharynx, larynx followed (31.3%), oral cavity (25.2%), nasal cavity and sinuses (4.3%), and finally, salivary glands (3.6%). While among men the most important locations are the larynx and pharynx in women oral cavity and pharynx assume these positions. The survival analysis by Kaplan-Meier, stratifying patients by location and gender, showed statistically significant differences emerged between genders in HNC of the oral cavity, pharynx and salivary glands. Through a direct analysis, we noticed that our sample is representative of Portugal reality. The different incidence of HNC in both sexes, with regard to age group, shows that these cancers arise in women at older ages and in men at younger ages. Conclusions: The promotional campaigns, prevention and screening to detect early lesions are widely disseminated to diseases such as breast, cervical, colorectal and prostate cancer. We thought that more actions should be performed for public information, in order to do more earlier diagnosis of HNC, ensuring that treatments should had more curative intent and be less aggressive.