Head and neck cancer in young people: a series of 52 SCCs of the oral tongue in patients aged 35 years or less.
CONCLUSIONS
Prognosis was very poor as soon as a local failure developed. Up-front treatment should be optimized to control this rare disease. We propose producing and reporting recommendations via a concerted oncologic physician referral network.


OBJECTIVE
Squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) in young people is rare and the literature is confusing. This study was carried out to assess the demographics, clinical features, and treatment outcome in a cohort of patients aged 35 years or less with SCC of the oral tongue (SCCOT).


METHODS
This was a multicenter retrospective study. Fifty-two patients treated between 1990 and 2000 were identified. Descriptive statistics were analyzed to assess demographic and tumor variables.


RESULTS
The WHO performance status was excellent for all patients. Thirty-seven were classified as T1-T2 and 38 were N0. All of them except one were treated with curative intent. Treatment failures were observed in 25 patients (48%). Four patients could be successfully salvaged after SCCOT recurrence or progression. The disease-free survival (DFS) was 52% at 5 years. The 5-year overall survival (OS) rate was 64%. Factors that affected the OS were invasion of the floor (p=0.009), cross over of the midline (p=0.02), positive lymph nodes (p=0.02), and the lack of disease control (p=0.0001).
Mallet
Yann
Y
Centre Oscar Lambret, Lille, France. y-mallet@o-lambret.fr
Avalos
Nicolas
N
Le Ridant
Anne-Marie
AM
Gangloff
Pierre
P
Moriniere
Sylvain
S
Rame
Jean Pierre
JP
Poissonnet
Gilles
G
Makeieff
Marc
M
Cosmidis
Alain
A
Babin
Emmanuel
E
Barry
Béatrix
B
Fournier
Charles
C
D000328:Adult; D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D005260:Female; D005602:France / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D018307:Neoplasms, Squamous Cell / Q000401:mortality / Q000628:therapy*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D014062:Tongue Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality / Q000628:therapy*; D017211:Treatment Failure; D055815:Young Adult