Introduction: The characteristics of oral tongue squamous cell carcinomas (SCC) and the treatment results were reviewed to determine the appropriate
treatment strategies.
Materials and Methods: The medical records of 140 patients diagnosed and treated for oral tongue SCC at Yonsei University Health System from
January 1995 to December 2004 were reviewed. For statistic analysis, the survival rate was determined using the Kaplan-Meier method with SPSS
version 12.0, and the difference in survival rates was evaluated using a log-rank test.
Results: The mean age of the patients with oral tongue SCC patients was 55 (19-85 years old). According to the T, N and pathologic stage, the
patients were distributed from a higher to a lower incidence of cases, as follows: T2 (46.4%), T1 (37.9%), T4 (8.5%), and T3 (7.1%); N0 (65%), N1
(20.7%), N2 (13.6%), and N3 (0.7%); and stage Ⅰ (31.4%), stage Ⅱ (25.7%), stage Ⅳ (22.2%), and stage Ⅲ (20.7%). Local and regional recurrence
and distant metastasis was present in 13.6%, 5% and 4.2% of patients, respectively. The five-year survival rate was 72.2%, and the prognostic factors
for oral tongue SCC included neck metastasis, pathologic stage of the disease, cell differentiation, treatment modality, neck dissection as part of the
treatment plan, and neck node recurrence.
Discussion: It is suggested that ipsilateral neck dissection or bilateral neck dissection should be selected as a treatment of tongue SCC patients with
advanced stage.