Sarcoma of the oral and maxillofacial soft tissue in adults

Aims: Sarcoma occurring in oral and maxillofacial soft tissue is rare. This study was carried out to evaluate the prevalence of oral soft tissue sarco ma and to record its natural history and survival. Methods: Retrospective analysis of the patients with histologically proven oral and maxillofacial soft tissue sarcoma treated at the Regional Cancer C entre (RCC), Trivandrum, betweeen 1990-1998 was carried out. Results: During this period, ten cases of oral and maxillofacial sarcomas w ere registered. Three lesions were located on the cheek mucosa, two on the tongue and two on the mandibular alveolus, while there was one lesion each in the parotid region, maxilla and face (NOS). Mean age at presentation was 31.3+/-14.1 years (range 15-54 years). Seven of the patients (70%) were ma les. There were three cases of rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS), three cases of spind le cell sarcoma and one case each of angiosarcoma, haemangioendothelioma, m alignant schwannoma and malignant fibrous histiocytoma (MFH). All the patie nts were treated with surgery as a primary modality Median follow-up time w as 30 months (range 5-94 months). An overall srvival of 87.5% at 5 years wa s observed; however, 5-year disease free survival was 60.0% (95% CI 19.5-85 .2). Conclusions: Soft tissue sarcomas an of comparatively less frequent occurre nce in oral and maxillofacial soft tissue than in other tissues. A good sur vival rate can be achieved by multimodality treatment.