Maxillofacial Sarcomas: A Single Center Evaluation Study

Abstract

Sarcomas of the oral and maxillofacial region are known to arise more often from soft tissue (80%) than from bone/cartilage (20%). They can occur at any anatomical site and at any age³. They affect all ages, but, in most reports, adults have an 80-90% predilection while 10-20% affect children^4,5. Sarcomas demonstrate aggressive biological characters and comprise about 1% of all malignancies.

Aim- to evaluate the prevalence of patients with head and neck sarcomas managed by the same surgical and medical team at our center over a period of 4 years (2017-2021).

Methods- Day registers from the oral diagnosis clinic, surgical day case books and laboratory registers were used to retrieve relevant patient information. Information such as age, gender, tumor size, tumor location, duration of tumor at presentation, and the treatment

Results - The data was analysed using the R programming language. The median age of respondents in this study was 38 years, with a female preponderance (55%, n= 22) in a 1:1.2 male: female ratio. Most sarcomas were seen within the fourth decade of life (n=8, 20%), with 57.5% of patients (n = 23) under the age of 40 years. In addition, 14 (35%) of the sarcoma patients were in stages I and II, while 26 (65%) were categorized in stages 111 and 1V of their sarcomas. Nodal involvement was observed most at levels II and III of the head and neck. Staging of lesions was not related to gender, age group, or radiographic presentation.

There was a positive association (p = 0.0001) between nodal metastasis and post-ablative surgery complications.

Conclusion - Epidemiological evaluations in different countries are limited. Head and neck sarcomas can occur in any gender or age group. Poor prognosis is associated with tumor size, evidence of metastasis, late presentation for treatment, and advanced staging.