Head and neck and intra-oral soft tissue sarcomas

Abstract

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 Columbia. 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 tissue sarcoma is most often as an asymptomatic mass and discomfort is reported by less than one half of the patients. The commonest lesion identified was rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS). In this review, we identified 2 unique cases, 1 case of intra-oral hemangiopericytoma and 1 case of oral carcinosarcoma. The prognosis remains poor. Treatment includes wide surgical excision which may be supplemented with radiotherapy and chemotherapy.