Oral Surgery, Oral Medicine, Oral Pathology, Oral Radiology, and Endodontology
Oral and maxillofacial surgeryOnline only articleSpinal cord compression in patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma
Section snippets
Case 1
A 52-year-old woman appeared with a 4-month history of an ulcer on the left lateral side of her tongue. The ulcer had increased in size over the last week, causing pain, dysphagia, and speech difficulties. Medically, she suffered from asthma and eczema. Her past surgical history included right hip replacement and lumpectomy for benign breast disease. Clinical examination revealed a 6-cm ulcer on the left lateral side of the tongue, which extended to the level of the epiglottis and the lateral
Discussion
In this report, both patients suffered severe morbidity and eventual death shortly after treatment for advanced oral SCC. Both patients had large-volume disease with nodal involvement on initial diagnosis. Both developed aggressive distant metastasis over a short period of time. Although they presented different clinical pictures, subsequent imaging confirmed metastatic spread to the spinal vertebrae.
Squamous cell carcinoma accounts for approximately 90% of all oral cancer, with the anterior
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