Clinical study of 19 squamous cell carcinomas of the upper alveolus and gingiva

We analyzed the clinical characteristics of 19 patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the upper alveolus and gingiva, who accounted for 7.5% of 254 patients with head and neck carcinoma treated between 1971 and 1996. The patients consisted of 11 males and 8 females with a mean age of 63 years. There was 1 stage I patient (5.2%), 4 stage II patients (21.1%), 3 stage III patients (15.8%), and 11 stage IV patients (57.9%). Initial treatment consisted mainly of a combination of surgery and radiotherapy in 8 cases (42.1%), surgery in 6 cases (31.6%), and radiotherapy in 5 cases (26.3%). The five-year survival rate calculated by the Kaplan-Meier method was 57.9% for the entire group of 19 patients. The outcome was not good in patients treated with radiotherapy and in those who had tumors showing diffuse invasion.