Ten years retrospective survey of orofacial malignant neoplasms: A single institution's experience

ObjectivesThis study was carried out to document gender, age, subsite distribution and histologic types of orofacial malignant lesions in a Nigerian population and compare this findings with other studies in the literature.Case designThe case definition was a retrospective survey of all cases of histologically diagnosed malignant lesions of the orofacial region over a 10-year period.Results121 malignant lesions (14% all orofacial biopsies diagnosed) were histologically diagnosed. There were 66 males (54.5%) and 55 females (45.5%) and a gender ratio of 1.3:1. The peak age incidences occurred in the 6th–8th decades of life.76% (93) of the malignant lesions were epithelial malignant neoplasms while it constituted 10.7% of all biopsies seen within this period.Sarcomas constituted 8% of all malignant lesions and 1.1% of all biopsies while lymphomas constituted 14% of all malignant lesions and 2.1% of all biopsies.ConclusionIn this study, epithelial malignant tumours constituted the majority of diagnosed malignant tumours followed by lymphomas and sarcomas. Our study seem to mirror reports from earlier studies.