An Epidemiological Study of Oral Cancer Patients Attending Tertiary Health Care Centre

Abstract

Background: oral cancer is the most common cancer in India; amongst men (16.1%) while in women it is the fourth most common cancer (4.6%). Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) has been defined by WHO as a carcinoma with a squamous differentiation arising from the mucosal epithelium. Tobacco is addictive and is harmful to health in many ways. Smokeless tobacco includes betel quid with tobacco, pan masala, mainpuri tobacco, mawa, gul, tobacco with slaked lime(khaini) etc. Gutka chewing is the most and popular form of smokeless tobacco used in India. Material and methods: This prospective analytical study conducted at Department of Community medicine, Shree Narayan Medical College & Hospital, Saharsa, Bihar after approval from Thesis & Ethical Committee from Dec 2021 to Nov 2022 on 63 oral cancer patients. These 63 patients were collected from our medical college and hospital and multiple clinics of Surgery and ENT from Saharsa district and Purnea district. Permission from Surgery and ENT clinics was taken for the present study of diagnosed cases of oral cancer. Results: Most number of patients belongs to > 60 years’ group i.e., 24 (38.09%). Based on gender most common were male i.e., 46 (73.02%), According to distribution of patients with respect to occupation, most of them belong to Clerical and skilled category i.e., 15 (23.81%). Most number of studied patients were having cancer site- Tongue i.e., 16 (25.40%). Most common presenting symptom in studied patients was painful oral ulcer i.e., 50 (79.37%). Out of 63 cases, 10 (15.87%) cases were diagnosed as well differentiated SCC, 48 (76.19%) cases were diagnosed as moderately differentiated SCC and 05 (07.94%) cases were diagnosed as poorly differentiated SCC. Conclusion: Early Oral SCC discovery not only improves survival rates but also lessens the necessity for deforming procedures. Unfortunately, because up to 50% of patients already have local or distant metastases at the time of diagnosis, early detection of oral malignant lesions has proven challenging. Only a small number of cells or discrete regions of tissue are affected by the malignant change at the start of carcinogenesis.