Anaplastic squamous cell carcinoma of the mouth - a report on 100 consecutive cases

Squamous cell carcinoma is the commonest malignant tumour of the mouth (91 percent) in people living in Peninsular Malaysia. Since the histological grading of oral carcinoma ·is one of the several important factors to be considered in the long term survival of patients a more detailed study of anaplastic carcinoma of the mouth in 100 patients is made in this study. As reported in an earlier study the Chinese seem to be more prone to develop anaplastic carcinoma of the mouth. In contrast although oral carcinoma occurs most commonly in the Indians, the development of anaplastic carcinoma seems to be the least in them. The Indians seem to have a better host immune response to oral carcinoma than the Chinese and the Malays occupy an intermediary position. The peak age incidence was between 51-70 years (50 percent). In descending order of frequency anaplastic carcinoma involved the gingiva (29 percent), buccal mucosa (22 percent), palate (20 percent), and tongue (16 percent). Further studies may help to formulate a more effective tailor-made regime of treatment for each individual oral carcinoma patient.