Publication:

A clinical study of head and neck malignancy in a tertiary hospital

Background Head and Neck Malignancy (HNM) is a recognized major public health concern all over the world. They are amongst the commonest malignancy in India and accounts for up to 20% cancer burden in India.

Methods Ours is a retrospective study done over 5 years period in a tertiary hospital to study the incidence of head and neck malignancy, age and sex predilection, type of malignancy, its stage of presentation and patient compliance for treatment (surgery/radiotherapy/chemotherapy), post-operative complications, its management and follow-up study of patients survival with or without recurrence over the next 5 years.

Results Total of 312 cases of HNM were seen in ENT OPD in tertiary hospital over a period of 5 years. In 153 cases diagnosis was confirmed by biopsy/histopathology, only 15 patients agreed for surgery. Hypopharyngeal and laryngeal malignancy accounted for most of the cases. Mean age of patients - in case of laryngeal ca was 56.8, hypopharyngeal ca was 60. Majority were males.

Conclusions Despite having a large turnover of HNM patients only 15 patients were willing to undergo curative surgery. This less number could be due to unwillingness to accept deformity, patient’s low economic status, lack of awareness amongst both patients and referring doctors, and lastly either due to advanced stage of disease or patient being medically unfit for surgery. However in our study 14 out of 15 patients who underwent curative surgery had more than 5 years survival rate with very few post-operative complications.