PREVALENCE OF MALIGNANT NEOPLASMS IN THE ORAL AND MAXILOFACIAL REGION: A PRELIMINARY STUDY

The objective of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of malignant neoplasms in the oral and maxillofacial region (OMF) diagnosed in the Department of Pathology of a public university during 10 years. A cross-sectional and retrospective study was carried out through the collection of clinical-pathologic data from patients with malignant neoplasms in the OMF region obtained through the histopathologic reports and nosologic files from the department from January 2005 through December 2014, excluding the lesions in soft palate, uvula, oropharynx, nasal cavity, and facial skin. There were 46 malignant neoplasms located mainly in the tongue (26%, n = 12) and mouth floor (23.9%, n = 11) of male patients (67.3%, n = 31) during the sixth and seventh decades of life (41.3%, n = 19), 3 of them with indeterminate histogenesis. From the 43 lesions identified, 78.3% (n = 36) were from the lining epithelium, especially the squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). The remaining cases were mesenchymal (6.5%, n = 3), glandular (6.5%, n = 3) and hematolymphoids (2.2%, n = 1) lesions. The literature points to SCC as the most prevalent malignant lesion in the mouth (95%), in agreement with the present study; however, our values are slightly lower than those found in the literature for this lesion.