Demographics, habits, and clinical presentation of oral cancer in Puducherry's population: An institutional experience

Introduction: Oral cancer ranks among the top three of all cancers in India and accounts for over 30% of all cancers reported in the country. More than one-third of these are preventable by avoiding deleterious habits. Although the term oral cancer encompasses all malignant tumors that originate from the oral tissues, 90% of these are squamous cell carcinomas confirmed histologically. Aim and Objective: 1. To assess the demographic profile of patients with oral cancer in Puducherry's population. 2. To evaluate if any correlation exists among the habits, primary site, and clinical presentation of oral cancer. Materials and Methods: Demographic, clinical, and histopathological data concerning oral cancer patients were retrieved from the archives of our institution from 2009 to 2014 and tabulated for further statistical analysis using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 17.0. Chi-square test was used to assess the correlation between variables ( P Results: The male-to-female ratio was 1:1.35. The mean age at presentation was 53 years; the incidence increased with age and more steeply in females. Smokeless tobacco was used in 69.3% of the cases. Mandibular alveolobuccal complex and buccal mucosa were the most common primary sites. Though no statistically significant correlation ( P > 0.05) was found between habits and the primary site, the palate was more commonly involved in smokers. Clinical presentation was ulceroproliferative in 67.19% of the cases but no significant correlation ( P > 0.05) was seen among age, gender, habits, and clinical presentation. 80% of the patients reported within 3 months of onset of symptoms and 66% were in TNM Stage 3. Conclusion: Through our study, we have tried to sketch the demographic profile of Puducherry's population with oral cancer but this is just the tip of a massive upsurging iceberg in the subcontinent.