Profile and survival of tongue cancer patients in "Dharmais" cancer hospital, Jakarta

Background: Tongue cancer is still a major health problem in most developing countries around the world. Statistics shown the number of tongue cancers, especially in early age, to be increasing, with poor survival. Objective: To analyze the characteristic profile of tongue cancer patients in Indonesia as well as the survival rate. Materials and Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted in Dharmais National Cancer Hospital by collecting general, clinical, and survival data of tongue cancer patients from medical records for January 2009 to April 2012. Results: Tongue cancer incidence increased year by year. The average age of tongue cancer patients was 47.5 years, and males predominated, accounting for 64.5% of cases. Most patients presented at an advanced stage (69.6%). The histopathology type was squamous cell carcinoma in the vast majoriy (96.8%). The therapies applied were surgery (45.6%), radiation (63.6%) and chemotherapy (57.6%). The survival rate after one year is 60.6% and after two years was 12.1%. In addition, median survival of tongue cancer patients was 20 months (95% confidence interval 9.07-30.9). The significant factor affecting survival was size of tumor with a hazard ratio of 3.18 (95% CI, 1.02-9.93; p 0.046) for largest versus smallest categories. Conclusions: In each year, the number of tongue cancer incidents in Indonesia is increasing. The age of tongue cancer patients in Indonesia is younger compared to other countries. Moreover, the survival rates are not high.