Clinical study of 24 squamous cell carcinomas of the floor of the mouth

We Clinically analyzed 24 patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the floor of the mouth, comprising 10.8% of 222 patients with head and neck carcinoma treated between 1975 and 1996. The patients consisted of 22 males and 2 females with a mean age of 62 years. There were 5 stage II patients (20.8%), 7 stage III patients (29.2%), and 12 stage IV patients (50.0%). Initial treatment consisted mainly of surgery in 10 patients (41.7%), a combination of surgery and radiotherapy in 7 patients (29.2%), radiotherapy in 4 patients (16.6%), and chemotherapy in 3 patients (12.5%). The 5-year survival rate calculated by the Kaplan-Meier method was 67.2% for the entire group of 24 patients. The outcome was not good in patients with advanced tumors and tumors showing diffuse invasion.