HEAD AND NECK AND INTRAORAL SOFT-TISSUE SARCOMAS

Intra-oral soft tissue sarcoma is a rare disease. We reviewed a tumour registry over a 45 year period, between January 1951 and January 1997 , and identified a total of 11 250 head and neck cancers in British Co lumbia. Of the head and neck cancers, there were 139 cases (1.24%) of sarcoma; and of these, there were only 16 cases (0.14%) of intra-oral soft tissue sarcoma. The initial presentation of intra-oral soft tissu e sarcoma is most often as an asymptomatic mass and discomfort is repo rted by less than one half of the patients. The commonest lesion ident ified was rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS). In this review, we identified 2 uniq ue cases, 1 case of intra-oral hemangiopericytoma and I case of oral c arcinosarcoma, The prognosis remains poor. Treatment includes wide sur gical excision which may be supplemented with radiotherapy and chemoth erapy. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.