The aim of the study was to describe clinical and demographic characteristics and analyze the survival of a series of patiens treated for squamous cell carcinoma of the oral cavity at the Department of Dentistry in Hradec Králové in 1988-2008. 200 patients were included in the study. Information about sex, age, site of the tumour, histologic findings, stage of disease, primary treatment method and cause of death were analyzed.
The Kaplan-Meier method was was used for survival analysis. The median of follow up was 28 months (range 1 - 242 months).
The male to female ratio was 2.1 : 1. The mean age of the patiens was 62 +- 12 years. 101 patients were diagnosed in the late stage of the disease (TNM stages III, IV).
Most patiens were treated surgically (44 %). 77 experienced a locoregional recurrence (39 %). During the time of observation, 53 % of patiens died, out of which 37 % died of the primary malignancy.
The 5-year overall survival was 45 %, the 5-year disease-specific survival was 58 %. The survival depended mostly on the anatomic site of of the tumour, and on the stage of the disease.Therefore, early diagnosis of the disease is essential.