Pattern of malignant tumors registered at a referral oral and maxillofacial hospital in Sudan during 2006 and 2007

Background: A progressive increase in the incidence and mortality of oral cancer is expected in Sudan. However, updated information on the epidemiology and pattern of the disease in the country is needed to draw the attention of the local authorities. Aim: The aim of this study has been to describe the pattern of cancer cases attending a referral oral and maxillofacial hospital in Sudan during the period 2006-2007. Settings and Design: The investigation was conducted as a cross-sectional study using the hospital records. Materials and Methods: From the hospital database, all cancer cases registered during the study period have been reported and their demographic characteristics, clinical information and history of oral habits were included. Statistics: Statistical Package for Social Sciences (version 12) was used for data analysis. Frequency distributions of the study variables were made and the association between pairs of variables was examined using the Chi-square test with a level of significance of 0.01. Results and Conclusion: Of the 261 cases included in this study, the most common pattern was found to be an intraoral squamous cell carcinoma (73.6%). The male to female ratio was approximately 3:2. Dropout rates were alarmingly high regardless of the patient′s state of residence. The observation of this study indicated that most of the patients seek treatment when the tumor reaches late stage. More public health efforts are therefore needed to investigate the current impact of the problem as well as for prevention and early detection of the cases.