Abstract

"Introduction: Oral cancer is a common disease in many parts of the world, in Chile only accounts for 1.6% of all cancers. The majority is squamous cell carcinoma with important clinical, epidemiological and pathological differences between lip, oral and orofaringeal locations. Objective: To analyze clinical and pathological characteristics of oral and oropharingeal squamous cell carcinoma in Temuco, Chile. Materials and Methods: A descriptive, retrospective study of all diagnosed cases in 15 years (1994 and 2008). The patients were analyzed according to gender, age; and the tumors were classified based on anatomic location, size, macroscopical findings and degree of differentiation. Results: We found 93 carcinomas, with male to female ratio of 5:1, average age 67 years. Patients under 50 years accounted for only 8% of cases. The most common sites were lower lip, tongue and gingiva, with an average size of 28 mm, which increased towards orofarinx and more than half were moderately differentiated. Conclusions: In our region, this carcinoma most often affects the seventh decade of life and male population and has similar characteristics to those in other countries which is predominantly. The size at diagnosis is significant. The detection of some differences in the group with mapuche surnames warrants a study with a larger number of cases."