Abstract

Objectives: The aim of the present study was to evaluate changes in the management and 5-year survival rates of patients with oral cancer in our de-partment over a 30-year period.Materials and Methods: We investigated the patient distributions, treatment methods, method of neck dissection according to cancer stage, and 5-year survival rates for 700 oral cancer patients over the periods of 1982-1996 (256 patients), 1999-2006 (248 patients), and 2007-2011 (196 patients).Results: Stage IV patients were the largest group in all of the time periods evaluated. Although surgery and radiotherapy were the most common methods in all periods (over 50%), the prevalence of patients who underwent concomitant chemoradiotherapy increased from 7.0% to 16.2%. The use of radical neck dissection decreased from 43.0% to 5.3%, while conservative surgical methods increased from 24.1% to 76.3%. Lastly, the overall 5-year survival rate increased from 31.6% to 63.5% during the study period.Conclusion: Although the 5-year survival rate reached the same level as that of other developed countries during the course of our study, most pa-tients continue to come to the hospital with stage IV disease. In order to increase the 5-year survival rate of oral carcinoma, it may be necessary to im-prove public education and social efforts relevant to early diagnosis.