Prevalence of Lip and Tongue Squamous Cell Carcinoma (Scc) at a Pathological Anatomy Service in Northeast Brazil

Abstract

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 alcoholassociated 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.

Relationship between tumor thickness and GATA3 immunoexpression in lip and tongue squamous cell carcinomas

“…In the case of OSCC, the location of the tumor is known to be directly associated with diagnosis and prognosis. Within this context, lip OSCC has the best prognosis because it is easily identi ed and can be treated early, while OSCC of the tongue has been associated with a poor prognosis [5].…”