Correlation between Sociodemograpic Charecteristics and Clinicopathological Presentation of Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma: A Crossectional Study from a Tertiary Care Cancer Centre, Odisha.

Background: Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is significantly higher in India as about 70% of the cases are reported in the advanced stages leaving five-year survival rates around 20% only. Primary prevention and early diagnosis were found to be novel approaches to avert cancer cases and related deaths. In India, organized prevention and early detection efforts are still lacking. Aim and objectives: To investigate the correlation between sociodemographic characteristics and clinicopathological presentation of oral squamous cell carcinoma. Materials and methods: Single hospital-based crossectional retrospective study was carried out at the Department of Head and Neck Oncology, Acharya Harihar Post Graduate Institute of Cancer, Cuttack for a period of three years from October 2018 to September 2021. Results: A total of 418 cases of histopathologically confirmed OSCC were reported during this study period.  There were 314 (75.11%) male and 104 (24.88%) female patients. The mean (± SD) age of the patients was 52.29 ± 13.37 years with ranging from 21 to 89 years. When checked for the association between tumor stage (early stage I/II and late-stage III and IV) and sociodemographic characteristics,we found middle age male,rural residency,low soccioeconomic status,illiteracy, chewing gutkha  7-10 numbers per day more than 10 years, were significantly associated with the late-stage tumors. Similarly, tumor at left buccal mucosa and border of tongue, moderately and poorly differentiated tumor, underlying Type 2 diabetes, diagnosis more than 10 months after the onset of symptoms were significantly associated with late stage presentation. Conclusion: There is an important need to initiate public awareness programs in our region to control and prevent oral cancer by screening for early diagnosis and supporting a tobacco-free environment.