Simrandeep Singh¹*, Tejinder Paul Singh², KK Harsh³, SL Jakhar⁴, Neeti Sharma⁵ and HS Kumar⁶

¹Assistant Professor, Department of Radiotherapy, G. G. S Medical College and Hospital, Faridkot, India
²Medical Officer, Department of Surgery, Mata Kaushalya Hospital, Patiala, India
³Associate Professor, Department of Radiotherapy, ATRCTRI, Bikaner, India
⁴Professor, Department of Radiotherapy, ATRCTRI, Bikaner, India
⁵Professor and Head, Department of Radiotherapy, ATRCTRI, Bikaner, India
⁶Senior Professor, Department of Radiotherapy, ATRCTRI, Bikaner, India

*Corresponding Author: Simrandeep Singh, Assistant Professor, Department of Radiotherapy, G. G. S Medical College and Hospital, Faridkot, India.

Received: March 28, 2022; Published: June 02, 2022

Abstract

Introduction: The higher prevalence of oral cavity cancer among males in India is attributed to the habit of tobacco chewing. In many states of India, there is addiction of Tobacco chewing in form of Zarda and Betel Quid placed under the tongue or at gingiva, which causes ulceration/lesion of underlying tissue. Tobacco chewing and smoking has synergistic effects to cause head and neck malignancy especially oral cavity and oropharynx. Oral cavity lesions are visible to the patients and oropharynx disease presentation is symptom based. Due to lack of awareness among tobacco chewers and smokers in rural as well as urban population, most of the patients present to hospital with heavy burden of disease.

Material and Method: This is a retrospective observational study conducted in regional cancer center Acharya Tulsi Regional cancer Treatment and Research Institute (ATRCTRI), Bikaner. A total of 88 patients were enrolled in this study to observe the pattern of disease. All patients who had proven malignancy in oral cavity and oropharynx were registered in Department of Radiotherapy. All patients after diagnostic and metastatic work up were staged according to TNM classification.

Results: Mean age of the patients in this study was 55.6 years. Male to female ratio was 2.67:1. Oral cavity patients were 42 (47.7%) and oropharynx patients were 46 (52.3%). In present study, SCC histopathology was seen in 62 (70.5%) patients and Adenocarcinoma histopathology in 26 (29.5%) patients. In oral cavity, stage I 6 (14.3%) patients, stage II 9 (21.4%) patients, stage III 11 (26.2%) patients and stage IV 16 (38.1%) patients respectively. Out of stage IV 16 patients, 9 (21.4%) patients were IVa and 7 (16.7%) patients were IVb.

In oropharynx, stage I 3 (6.5%) patients, stage II 7 (15.2%) patients, stage III 16 (34.8%) patients and stage IV 20 (43.5%) patients respectively. Out of stage IV 20 patients, 12 (26.1%) patients were IVa and 8 (17.4%) patients were IVb.

Discussion: Head and neck malignancy is the most common malignancy in India among males. This scenario is totally different from rest of the world, where the prevalence of lip and oral cavity cancer was not among the five most common malignancy¹. This is because of the habit of tobacco chewing, smokeless tobacco in India. Pan, gutkha, zarda are considered as smokeless tobacco, which is generally placed under the tongue or near the gingiva buccal sulcus. It starts the process of chronic inflammation leading to ulceration. In India, among the users of smokeless tobacco, due to lack of awareness, most of the patients present at advanced stage. Besides the oral cavity lesions are visible to patients. In oropharynx part, patients presented to hospital when the symptoms become more aggressive.

Conclusion: Oral cavity cancer patients present earlier as compared to oropharynx tumor patients. This is because the oral cavity lesions are visible to patients and easy to locate but presentation of oropharynx tumors is symptoms based. When tumor shows its symptoms, at that time it can be recognized by the patient. Furthermore, among Indian rural population, due to lack of awareness, even oral cavity patients present at a later stage.

Keywords: Oral Cavity; Oropharynx; Symptoms; Stage

References

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Citation

Citation: Simrandeep Singh., et al. “Comparison of Oral Cavity and Oropharynx Cancer Patients Presentation at Regional Cancer Center: An Observational Study" 6.4 (2022): 01-04.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2022 Simrandeep Singh., et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.