Squamous cell carcinoma in mouth mucosa: a short survey

Abstract

Oral cancer is a public health issue in many countries, including Brazil. Thus, prevention and early diagnosis still remain as the most effective ways to combat cancer. The present study aimed to obtain a profi le of squamous cell carcinoma cases in the city of São José dos Campos. All case fi les from 1972 to 2004 were analyzed and only 224 had the diagnosis of interest. Data regarding gender, race, age and location of the primary lesion were tabled and analyzed, using descriptive statistics. Regarding gender, a strong occurrence in males (80.4% of the cases) was observed, the same regarding white race (74.6%). In regards to age, 86.2% of the patients were between the fi fth and eighth decade of life at the moment of the diagnosis. In this study, is was also noticeable that tongue was the most affected region, with 22.8% of the cases, followed by inferior lip (19.7%) and mouth fl oor (14.3%). The epidemiological pattern presented by oral cancer in the city of São José dos Campos does not differ from the one observed in the other parts of Brazil.