O perfil epidemiológico pode influenciar as características clínicas e malignas dos carcinomas orais e orofaríngeos?

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=<0.001). Conclusion: association of alcohol consumption with more advanced lesions at diagnosis underscores the need to address the risk factors more emphatically. Although classic factors implicated in the course of oral and oropharyngeal SCC have been observed, it is remarkable the high frequency of illiterate patients coming from country towns, which could have hampered the access to health care and contributed to a delayed diagnosis and thus, to a poorer prognosis.