Carcinoma of the tongue treatment results: 129 patients

ABSTRACT

One hundred and twenty nine patients were treated during 10 years period. The relative frequency to all malignancies was 0.55% and 4.7% of all head and neck tumors. The mean age was 50.6 years. The male to female ratio was 1.6 1 Local lesion was the main presentation, associated with pain in 42.5% of patients. The duration of symptoms varied from 1 month to more than 1 year, with an average delay of 6 months before diagnosis. Tumors of the anterior two-thirds constituted 78% of the cases, the posterior third 9%, the junctional area 11% and lesions involving the whole tongue were 2% of cases. Squamous cell carcinoma was the main histopathological type, and most of the patients were of stages III and IV. All patients were treated by radiation therapy, either as radical or postoperative modality. The locoregional control rate was 70.5%. Failure was mainly in stage III patients treated by surgery and postoperative irradiation, followed by stage IV patients treated by radical external bean irradiation. Surgery was more successful than radiation therapy as a salvage method for treatment failure