outcome of tongue cancer and early diagnosis

back ground and objective:oral cancer is primarily a disease of epithelial origin. the tongue is the most common site of oral cancer. the aim of this study was to determine the frequency of tongue cancer and signs, symptoms, clinical features, and site of lesions in addition to factors affected this cancer.  materials methods and:twenty eight medical records of patients who admitted for tongue cancer in head and neck surgery department, ahvaz, iran, during 2003-2007 years, were analyzed. information included: age, gender, diagnosis time, lesion site, treatment and lymph node involvement.   results:the most patients (78.6%) were above 40 years, male were (72.2%) and female were (75%) in the above 40 years group .the most common lesion site was shown in table 1. the median time from symptom presentation to diagnosis was 5.21 months. early stage (i, ii) and late stage (iii, iv) were seen in (39.3%) and (60.7%) of patients. primary lesion resection was performed for all of the patients and 16 cases (57.1%) underwent hemi or total gelossectomy and neck dissection. recurrence was seen in seven cases (25%). finally, in patients fallowed up, three cases  dead after 6-7 years.  conclusion: gender does not influence prognosis in patients with oral tongue cancer, and in our study there was no correlation between sex and locoregional metastasis, thus on prognosis. sixty-seven percent of patients were stage iii and iv. in one study, 55% of patients were stage iii and iv (16) that was  lower and in the other study there were (78.8%) that was higher(15,16) than this study.