A meta-analysis of oral squamous cell carcinoma in young adults with a comparison to the older group patients (2014–2019)

Abstract

Background: The oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) often affects elderly aged adults, who had long-term tobacco exposure. In the recent past decade, there is an increasing incidence of OSCC in younger individuals, who had less tobacco association. Aim: The aim of this study is to examine the risk factors and to assess and compare the clinicopathological features and prognosis of OSCC in young patients with the older group patients. Materials and Methods: We included studies that addressed the OSCC involving young patients during the period between 2014 and 2019. Initially, we found 679 articles; after refined evaluation, 92 works had their titles matching to the present work. After extraction of case reports, reviews, and studies with un-matched objectives or inadequate data, we have chosen only 24 presentations matching to the abstract. The statistical analysis performed by Chi-square tests using SPSS 20.0 version for windows. Results: Of the total OSCC, 10% of patients belonged to the younger age group, and 90% were the older aged group. Both the groups showed male gender predominance and tongue as the predominant site of involvement. The younger patients tend to have significantly reduced tobacco exposure. The highly reported tumors were advanced staged and moderately differentiated tumors in both groups. There was a statistically evident high recurrence reported in the younger group. The overall survival seems to be similar for both groups. Conclusion: The identification of the potential risk factors, along with unique molecular mechanisms, and biological behavior of the disease is mandatory to control the incidence of OSCC in young adults.

Keywords

• oral cancer
• oral squamous cell carcinoma
• younger adults