Incidence rates of oral cancer and oral pre-cancerous lesions in a 6-year follow-up study of a Taiwanese aboriginal community.
BACKGROUND
In a previous article, we reported the prevalence rates of oral mucosal lesions in an aboriginal community from an epidemiological survey of oral pre-cancerous lesions.


METHODS
Since 1997, the authors have started regular follow-up of the study population originally investigated. Thus, it has been possible to obtain incidence rates for the various oral pre-cancerous lesions and conditions.


RESULTS
There were 194 persons without any oral lesion in the 1997 screening. During the clinical follow-up investigation and during the analysis of biopsies from pre-cancerous lesions, we discovered six new lesions (including cancer and pre-cancerous lesions) from five participants. All of the five persons were areca/betel quid chewers, and only one mixed areca/betel quid chewing with cigarette smoking habit. The age-standardized incidence rates for quid lesion, oral submucous fibrosis (OSF) and squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) were 267.0, 374.1 and 146.2 per 100,000 person-years, respectively, for areca/betel quid chewers.


CONCLUSIONS
As compared with the rates from India and the general Taiwanese population, the study community encountered a serious problem of oral lesions.
Yang
Y-H
YH
Graduate Institute of Oral Health Sciences, College of Oral Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
Chen
C-H
CH
Chang
J S F
JS
Lin
C-C
CC
Cheng
T-C
TC
Shieh
T-Y
TY
D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D001114:Areca / Q000009:adverse effects; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000453:epidemiology; D005006:Ethnicity / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007972:Leukoplakia, Oral / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009062:Mouth Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000208:ethnology; D009914:Oral Submucous Fibrosis / Q000453:epidemiology; D011230:Precancerous Conditions / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000208:ethnology; D012907:Smoking / Q000453:epidemiology; D013624:Taiwan / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000208:ethnology