An epidemiological study of 270 cases of carcinomas of the head and neck region in a Nigerian tertiary health care facility

Abstract EN

Introduction : Oral cancer is the sixth most frequently occurring malignant tumor and is the major cause of morbidity and mortality with high metastatic and invasive tendency.

The incidence of oral cancer differs widely in various parts of the world with a range of 2–10 per 100,000 populations per year, approximately 300,000 new cases.

Incidence and mortality as a result of oral cancer are higher in developing countries when compared to developed countries.

This is the reason for the occurrence of the peak age in later decades of life.

Patients and methods : All consecutive cases of histologically diagnosed cases of orofacial carcinomas seen at the Maxillofacial Unit, Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital, Shika, Zaria, Nigeria over a 10 year period were retrospectively analyzed.

Results : Over the study period, a total of 1116 cases of maxillofacial conditions were seen in the unit out of which 270 represented orofacial cancers, giving a prevalence of 24.19%.

Of the 270 cases, male accounted for 159(58.9%) while females were 111(41.1%) giving a male to female ratio of 1.43:1.

The age ranged from 5 to 90 years, mean (SD), 48.4(16.12) years and patients in the 4th to 6th decades (47.7%) were mostly affected.

There was no gender difference in terms of distribution of the tumors according to age.

Conclusion : Squamous cell carcinoma of the orofacial region has continued to pose great challenges to care givers and practitioners involved in their management.