Epidermoid Carcinoma of the Lip Histologic Grading in the Clinical Evaluation

The prognosis of epidermoid carcinoma of the lip is usually favourable.An exception consists of cases of recurrence or residual tumour after the primary treatment and in particular the occurrence of regional lymph node metastases, initially or later.A correlation between the clinical assessment and standardized graded histologic examination is the object of the present report in order to distinguish the potential risk group of patients in whom recurrence or metastases were particularly likely to occur.Such a group would require special therapeutic measures, e.g.frequent followup examinations and possibly elective neck dissections.This series consists of a part of the major material of 869 patients treated for carcinoma of the lip, previously analysed clinically (JBRGENSEN et coli.1973).The present part comprises 438 patients treated during the period 1955-1966, since continuous microscopic material for evaluation was not available before 1955.Clinical aspects.Among the 438 patients with microscopically confirmed epidermoid carcinoma of the lip recurrence or residual tumour after the primary treatment occurred in 53 (12.1 per cent); lymph node metastases in 33 (7.6 per cent), of these 10 (2.3 per cent) were primary and 23 (5.3 per cent) secondary, distant metastases ~