Browsing by Author "Afrasiabi, Shirin"

Oral tongue squamous cell carcinoma (OTSCC) is one of the most common types of oral cancer. OTSCC usually occurs in males between the ages of 60-70, but recently there has been an increase in OTSCC patients under the age of 40. Commonly known risk factors for tongue cancer are heavy smoking and excessive alcohol consumption. The aim of our study was to find a correlation between gender and prevalence of diagnosis in OTSCC patients, and to observe if OTSCC has become more common in younger patients during recent years. In this study, we studied oral tongue squamous cell carcinoma cases found in the data pool of the pathological department of the University of Helsinki central hospital Q-Pati during the years 1975-2018. We recorded only the gender, date of birth and age at the time of diagnosis. For the statistical analysis, we divided our patients in age-groups of ≤40 years, 40-59 years and ≥60 years. The data was then analyzed using R-studio. From the data, we calculated the incidence rate ratio (IRR) and p-value using the Poisson analysis method. The results show that the rate of diagnosed OTSCC patients has generally increased in all age groups. For female patients the biggest increase was observed in patients ≥60 years old and in male patients 40-59 years old. In both genders we could observe a statistically significant increase in younger patients.