Oral and Upper Aero-Digestive Tract Malignancy: A Review of a Five-Year Experience

Abstract

(25%) and 179 males (69.4%). In 12 cases (4.7%), sex was not specified. The most affected age group was between 41-50 years (24.5%), and the least affected were those above 91 years and below 11 years ( Table 1). The most common malignancy was squamous cell carcinoma (50.7%), followed by basal cell carcinoma (15.9%). Metastatic carcinoma constituted about 13.2%, nonHodgkin’s lymphoma 10.8%, including Burkitt’s lymphoma (1.2%), and adenocarcinoma was 2.3%. 5 The lowest incidence was mucoepidermoid, verrucous carcinoma, and melanoma, accounting for 1.2%. This was followed by Hodgkin’s (0.8%) and adenoid cystic carcinoma (0.5%). There were three cases of anaplastic carcinoma (1.2%). Rhabdosarcoma and neuroblastoma constituted 0.8%. (Table 2). Lymph nodes were the most affected site, with malignancy comprising 20.2%. The skin of the head and neck was the second most common site (19.3%), followed by the nasopharynx (15.9%), buccal mucosa (9.7%), tongue (8.9%), neck (6.9%), and larynx and salivary glands (3.9% each) ( Tables 3 and 4). The least involved sites were the minor salivary glands and gingiva. The sternocleidomastoid was involved with rhabdosarcoma in one case.