Lower lip cancers: analysis retrospectively for a period of 10-years

Abstract

Oral cavity cancers are reported to constitute 2-4% of all cancers. Being the most common among oral cancers, 95% of lip cancers are located on the lower lip, 4% on the upper lip and the remaining one percent at the commissure. The purpose of this article was to analyze retrospectively in lower lip cancer patients who were operated in our clinic. Between October 1999 and December 2009, 57 patients with lip cancer were analyzed retrospectively, with regards to their age, state of oral hygiene, etiological factors, nodal status at the first visit, period from the onset of symptoms to the patient's first application to our clinic, follow-up period, neck dissection, postoperative radiotherapy and the TNM classification of the tumors. Hereby, we aimed at presenting our results and comparing them with the current data. The mean ages of the patients were 63.21 years and 70.17% were male and the remaining 29.83% were female. General oral care and hygiene was good in 8.77% and bad in 49.12% of males and good in 5.35% and bad in 19.29% of females. 52.64% of males and 5.35% of females were active smokers, and 44.5% of all patients had lymphadenomegaly at first admission. According to TNM classification, 43.88% of patients had T1, 33.32% had T2, 17.53% had T3 and 5.27% had T4 tumors. The tumors were excised with 1 cm surgical margins and 39 patients had cervical lymphatic dissection. 33.34% of the patients were given postoperative radiotherapy. During the first two years postoperatively, 89.48% of the patients visited the clinic on a regular basis, however, the intervals between visits increased thereafter. Lip cancers are commonly seen in males of advanced age. Following treatment, a long survival is evident in cases of early staged tumors. With this study, we aimed at comparing our results with existing data in the literature.