The characteristics and treatment results of squamous cell carcinomas of oral tongue

Introduction: The characteristics of oral tongue squamous cell carcinomas (SCC) and the treatment results were reviewed to determine the appropriate\ntreatment strategies.\nMaterials and Methods: The medical records of 140 patients diagnosed and treated for oral tongue SCC at Yonsei University Health System from\nJanuary 1995 to December 2004 were reviewed. For statistic analysis, the survival rate was determined using the Kaplan-Meier method with SPSS\nversion 12.0, and the difference in survival rates was evaluated using a log-rank test.\nResults: The mean age of the patients with oral tongue SCC patients was 55 (19-85 years old). According to the T, N and pathologic stage, the\npatients were distributed from a higher to a lower incidence of cases, as follows: T2 (46.4%), T1 (37.9%), T4 (8.5%), and T3 (7.1%); N0 (65%), N1\n(20.7%), N2 (13.6%), and N3 (0.7%); and stage �뀪 (31.4%), stage �뀫 (25.7%), stage �뀭 (22.2%), and stage �뀬 (20.7%). Local and regional recurrence\nand distant metastasis was present in 13.6%, 5% and 4.2% of patients, respectively. The five-year survival rate was 72.2%, and the prognostic factors\nfor oral tongue SCC included neck metastasis, pathologic stage of the disease, cell differentiation, treatment modality, neck dissection as part of the\ntreatment plan, and neck node recurrence.\nDiscussion: It is suggested that ipsilateral neck dissection or bilateral neck dissection should be selected as a treatment of tongue SCC patients with\nadvanced stage.