Histopathological Study of Malignant Oral Tumours: A Five-Year Study

Introduction: Oral tumors are one of the most challenging tumors regarding their good prognosis if diagnosed early and very difficult to control in advancing stages. Objectives: To study the prevalence, histopathological types and clinical presentation of various malignant oral tumors and their precursor lesions. Materials and Methods: This study includes the analysis of oral tumors received in the histopathology section of Department of Pathology, Government Medical College, Miraj, Maharashtra, over a period of 5-year that is from August 2008 to June 2013. Data such as age, sex, site of lesion, clinical presentation, histopathological type of tumor, and personal habits such as tobacco chewing, and smoking were collected and analyzed. Results: A total of 642 cases were analyzed during the study period. Malignant lesions were the most common oral lesions accounting to about 51.40%. The most common site was buccal mucosa 49.39%, followed by tongue 20.60%. Males were more commonly affected than females 70.9%. Out of 330 cases, 92.74% were conventional squamous cell carcinoma; other malignant lesions noted in our study were verrucous carcinoma 4.55%, spindle cell carcinoma 0.60%, papillary carcinoma 0.60%, basaloid carcinoma 1.21%, and one case of metastatic adenocarcinoma 0.30%. Tobacco chewing was the most common associated risk factor among all cases 82.89%. Mild dysplasia was the most common epithelial precursor lesion 53.34%. Conclusion: Histopathological examination of all oral lesions is necessary for confirmation and early diagnosis in oral malignancy as it has a major influence on the prognosis in such cases.