Squamous cell carcinoma of the lip. A retrospective study of 146 patients.

BACKGROUND: Squamous cell carcinoma of the lip (SCCL) accounts for 90% of all tumours of the oral cavity. We present a series of 146 patients with SCCL studied in our hospital. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate and identify the primary tumour parameters related to local and lymph node recurrence. METHODS: We retrospectively analysed the clinical characteristics, surgical procedures and tumour recurrences of the 146 patients diagnosed with SCCL in Hospital Universitario Fundación Alcorcón (Spain). RESULTS: A total of 122 of the 146 patients (91.7%) showed tumour stage ≤ T1N0M0 at diagnosis, and 11 (8.3%) showed stage >T1N0M0. Local recurrences were observed in 11 of the 146 patients (7.5%), and five patients (3.4%) developed lymph node metastases during follow-up. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis showed an increased tumour size to imply a greater risk of local recurrence (P = 0.025). The probability of local recurrence over the 24 months of follow-up was 1% for tumour stages ≤ T1N0M0 and 20% for stages ≥ T1N0M0. There appears to be a greater tendency towards local relapse in male patients, in smokers, patients living in rural areas, in lower lip tumours and in those patients showing infiltration at physical exploration. Eleven patients (8%) died during follow-up, although in only two of them (18%), SCCL was the cause of death. CONCLUSION: The low tumour stage of our patients may explain the few local and lymph node disease recurrences seen in our study. We have shown tumour size to be directly related to the probability of local recurrence.