Incidence and survival trends of lip, intra-oral cavity and tongue base cancers in south-east England.
BACKGROUND
Oral cavity cancers are on the increase in the UK. Understanding site-specific epidemiological trends is important for cancer control measures. This study demonstrates the changing epidemiological trends in lip, intra-oral cavity and tongue base cancers in south-east England from 1987 to 2006.


OBJECTIVE



METHODS
This was a retrospective study using anonymised data obtained from the Thames Cancer Registry (TCR) London. Data were analysed using SPSS v.17 and survival analyses with Kaplan-Meier and Cox regression. Age standardisation of the incidence rates was performed. It was conducted in south-east England, which has an average population of 12 million. The study analysed 9,318 cases (ICD-10 code C00-C06, C14). Kent Research Ethics Committee UK granted ethical approval.


RESULTS
Oral cancers were more common in men, with male: female ratio of 1.6:1. Tongue cancers had the highest frequency at 3,088 (33.1%). Incidence varied with each cancer type. Mean incidence (per 1,000,000) ranged from 2.3 (lip cancer) to 13.8 (tongue cancer). There has been a statistically significant increase in incidence for cancers of the tongue base, other parts of tongue, gum and palate (p<0.001). Median survival time varied by sub-site, with lip cancer having the best median survival time (11.09 years) compared with tongue base cancer (2.42 years). Survival analyses showed worse prognosis for men, older age at diagnosis, and presence of synchronous tumours (p<0.001).


CONCLUSIONS
There is a rising incidence of tongue and tongue base, gum and palate cancers in south-east England with wide variability in survival. Oral cancer awareness and screening programmes should be encouraged.
1 School of Cancer Sciences, University of Birmingham , United Kingdom.
O
O
Olaleye
2 University of Uyo Teaching Hospital , Nigeria.
U
U
Ekrikpo
3 School of Mathematics, Statistics and Actuarial Science, University of Kent, Canterbury , United Kingdom.
O
O
Lyne
4 University of Liverpool, Liverpool , United Kingdom.
J
J
Wiseberg
D017677:Age Distribution; D004739:England / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D005544:Forecasting; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008048:Lip Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009062:Mouth Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology*; D012042:Registries; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D017678:Sex Distribution; D015996:Survival Rate / Q000639:trends; D014062:Tongue Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology*
Oral cavity cancer; lip cancer; tongue base cancer