Malignant Head and Neck Tumors in Basrah: A Clinicopathological Study

Abstract

Malignant tumors of the head and neck exhibit a wide range of histological characteristics and involve multiple locations, therefore considered as a diverse collection of site-specific malignancies. The aim of the study was to evaluate key clinicopathological characteristics of head and neck malignancies in Basrah. In this retrospective study, the histopathological reports of 564 cases with head and neck malignancies were diagnosed in Basrah from 2012 to 2017. All of the cases were analyzed according to the patient's age and gender, as well as the location and histological type of the tumor. The patients' mean age of presentation was 46.45 ±20.75 SD, with about two third of the cases at or over 40 years of age and about 53.19% of cases were males. About 11.52% of the patients were in the age of children and adolescents. Head and neck lymph nodes were the most frequent site (30.67%) involved by malignant tumors, followed by the thyroid gland (20.21%), skin and soft tissues (12.77%), larynx (10.82%) and oral cavity (7.8%), respectively, and the most frequent type of malignancy was squamous cell carcinoma. Hence, the study revealed that head and neck malignancies in Basrah are mainly a disease of elderly, with slight male predominance. Head and neck lymph nodes, followed by thyroid gland, skin and soft tissue, larynx and oral cavity, were the commonest sites, respectively, and squamous cell carcinoma was the most frequent malignant tumor.