Can the epidemiological profile influence the clinical characteristics and malignancy of oral and oropharyngeal carcinomas?

Abstract

Objective: the aim of this study was to analyze possible associations between the epidemiological variables of the study and the clinical stage and malignancy grade of squamous cell carcinomas (SCCs) of the oral cavity and oropharynx, and to evaluate whether there is a correlation between clinical stage and histological grade in SCCs. Material and Methods: retrospective analytical study of SCCs cases diagnosed between June 2005 and December 2013. The data from medical records and histopathological findings of patients over 18 years old were entered into an Excel® spreadsheet and analyzed by SPSS® 20, using the chi-square and Fisher's exact tests to analyse the variables. The level of significance of the tests was 0.05. Results: patients were predominantly black, male, illiterate, in their sixth decade of life, living in country towns and exposed to tobacco and alcohol. There was also predominance of advanced-stage tongue lesions with high-grade malignancy treated with combined radiotherapy and chemotherapy treatment. There was association between exposure to alcohol with advanced stage at diagnosis (p=

Keywords

• Mouth neoplasms
• Epidemiology
• Risk factors
• Staging
• Neoplasm grading