Oral tongue cancer patients show a better overall survival than base of tongue cancer patients.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to compare the prognosis of oral tongue cancer patients and base of tongue cancer patients.

METHODS

One hundred oral tongue cancer patients (group A) were matched with 50 base of tongue cancer patients (group B) for gender, age, T-stage, and tumor differentiation in this study. Survival rate was performed using the Kaplan-Meier analysis, and multivariate analysis was conducted using the Logistic regression model.

RESULTS

There was difference in the survival rate between the two groups. Three- and 5-year OS (overall survival) of the two groups were 65.0, 51.0% for group A and 40.0, 28.0% for group B, respectively. For the two groups, 3- and 5-year DSS (disease-specific survival) were 61.0, 46.0% for group A and 38.0, 26.0% for group B, respectively. Multivariate analysis showed that recurrence (P = 0.019) and regional lymph node metastasis (P = 0.043) were significant between the group A and group B patients.

CONCLUSION

The oral tongue cancer patients had a better prognosis than base of tongue cancer patients. The difference in prognosis between the oral tongue cancer and the base of tongue cancer patients in this study was closely associated with the recurrence and regional lymph node metastasis. We conclude that the individual treatment should be used for base of tongue cancer patients.