Orofacial cancers: pattern and management in Ibadan, Nigeria

Background: Orofacial cancers remain a significant health burden globally, especially in the developing countries where the incidence is higher and appears to be increasing. This study aims to document the pattern, management and survivorship of patients with orofacial cancers as seen at a tertiary healthcare facilityin Nigeria.Materials and Methods: This is a retrospective study of patients who presented at our centre with orofacial cancers in the period between January 2010 and December. Patients' demographics, location of lesion, histopathological diagnosis, treatment given and follow-up events were extracted from the records. Patient with insufficient data for analysis were excluded. Data was analysed using IBM SPSS version 21.Results: 21,090 patients were seen during the study period and 228 of the 1,029 biopsies done were malignant. The study included 213 patients (121 males and 92 females. mean age 48.2 years) with orofacial cancers. The commonest sites were the jaws (48.8%), palate (13.1%) and the tongue (7.5%).Carcinomas constituted 71.8% and were the commonest malignancies. All patients presented in stages III (34.6%) or IV (65.4%). 39.4% of patients had no treatment instituted and surgery alone (21.9%) was the commonest treatment provided. The mean interval between treatment and recurrence was 3.0 months while mean expiration period was 13.5 months.Conclusion: Treatment conferred a higher probability of survival. Patients treated with surgery (and radiotherapy/chemotherapy) survived better than those treated non-aggressively. In general, about a third (30.8%) of orofacial cancer patients were alive at 5 years post presentation and about 50% of these survivors were living with the disease.Keywords: Orofacial cancer; outcome; survival; Nigeri