THE FREQUENCY OF COMMON HISTOLOGICAL TYPES OF ORAL AND MAXILLOFACIAL MALIGNANCIES

• Published in: Pakistan oral & dental journal 2017-06, Vol.37 (2), p.214
• Main Authors: QIAM, FAHAD, Khan, Muslim, DIN, QIAM UD
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Age; Bone cancer; Cancer screening; Dentistry; Diagnosis; Gender; Histopathology; Lymphoma; Maxillofacial; Mouth cancer; Neck; Patients; Teenagers; Tumors
• ISSN: 1012-8700; 1996-4439

INTRODUCTION Malignant neoplasms of the oral and maxillofacial region constitute the sixth to eighth most common malignancy worldwide.1,2 Its epidemiology varies from continent to continent and different methods of its assessment have been used by several authors, thus making it difficult to establish standardized frequencies of its incidence.3 In addition to the afore mentioned problem, only a small amount of work has been done on the frequency and histological typing of oral and maxillofacial malignancies as researchers tend to focus more on benign tumors of the oral and maxillofacial region due to their higher occurrence as compared to their malignant counterparts.4,5,6 Nonetheless, oral and maxillofacial malignancies tend to affect every age group, though it is infrequent in children.7 These malignancies show a diverse racial and ethnic variability, as representing only 0.8-1.2% of all cancers in the North American population,8 whereas Asian populations show an incidence rate of 3%.9 Most of the research on malignant oro-facial neoplasms has come from the African continent who have reported a frequency of 40-51% for such tumors, and showed a high predilection towards the incidence of sarcoma's. Existing literature from the Asian continent has come mostly from Iran where carcinoma's have been found to be most prevalent (54.5-70%).9,15 Among the carcinoma's, the predominant malignancy in Asia and Africa was Squamous cell carcinoma (44-50.6%) followed by salivary adenocarcinomas such as mucoepidermoid and adenoid cystic carcinoma (23.1%)9,12,13,15,16 Overall there is very little, if any, data available about the histological type and relative frequencies of malignant oro-facial tumors from the Asian subcontinent, much less from Pakistan itself. Similar results were reported from the SEER program data in the United States of America as well as Chile.1, 18 Barring a study conducted in Nigeria whose sample mean age was 11.0ñ4.5 years, other African studies also report the 41-60 years age as the most common group afflicted with oral and maxillofacial malignancies.10,26,28 Literature published from the Asian subcontinent also yielded data which conformed with the findings of this study.21,22 CONCLUSION 1 Males were more affected with oral and maxillofacial malignancies as compared to females. 2 The 4th and 5th decades of life were the most common age group that presented with oral and maxillofacial malignancies. 3 Carcinomas were a lot more common than sarcoma