Summary
The aim of this work was to trace an epidemiological and clinical profile of oral squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) cases diagnosed as lip and tongue SCC from June 2001 to 2018 at a pathology anatomy service located in Northeastern Brazil. Age, sex, duration, location, growth type, staining, metastasis, etiologic agents and lesion size data were obtained from patient clinical files and histopathological reports. A total of 124 cases were recorded, with tongue SCC being the most prevalent. The common characteristics of both assessed SCCs included higher frequency in men, mean age of 60 years old, evidence mostly of exophytic lesions and maximum size of 4 cm, predominantly diagnosed after a maximum of 1 year of appearance. Regarding divergent findings, lip SCC occurred mostly in the lower portion of the lip, presenting a predominantly leukoplastic color, with regular smoking habits and sunlight identified as the main etiological agents, and no strong relation to metastasis. On the other hand, tongue SCC mostly exhibiting predominantly erythroleukoplastic staining, with a greater relationship to alcohol-associated smoking and regular smoking habits. The highest percentage of patients with metastasis presented tongue SCC. Although lip and tongue SCC display a male preference, an increasing amount of female involvement has been noted over the years, due to the adoption of deleterious habits such as smoking and alcoholism. Tongue SCC presented a greater relationship with metastasis and clinical leukoeritroplastic evidence. This greater aggressiveness could be related to the unfavorable location of these lesions in relation to lip SCC, sometimes making it difficult to identify in their early development stages.
KEY WORDS: Lip cancer, tongue cancer, squamous cells cancer, alcoholism, smoking.
How to cite this article
FREITAS, R. S. L. S.; MAIA, A. C.; RODRIGUES, R. R.; ROLIM, L. S. A.; SOUZA, L. B. & ANDRADE SANTOS, P. P. Prevalence of lip and tongue squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) at a pathological anatomy service in Northeast Brazil. Int. J. Odontostomat., 15(2):409-414, 2021.
