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 survivalrate. Materials and
Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted in Dharmais National Cancer Hospitalby collecting general, clinical, and survival data of tongue cancer patients from medical records for January2009 to April 2012.
Results: Tongue cancer incidence increased year by year. The average age of tongue cancerpatients was 47.5 years, and males predominated, accounting for 64.5% of cases. Most patients presented at anadvanced 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 rateafter one year is 60.6% and after two years was 12.1%. In addition, median survival of tongue cancer patientswas 20 months (95% confidence interval 9.07-30.9). The significant factor affecting survival was size of tumorwith a hazard ratio of 3.18 (95% CI, 1.02-9.93; p 0.046) for largest versus smallest categories.
Conclusions: Ineach year, the number of tongue cancer incidents in Indonesia is increasing. The age of tongue cancer patientsin Indonesia is younger compared to other countries. Moreover, the survival rates are not high.