Rana et al.

Head & Neck Oncology 2011, 3:43

http://www.headandneckoncology.org/content/3/1/43

RESEARCH

Open Access

Modern surgical management of tongue

carcinoma - A clinical retrospective research over
a 12 years period
Majeed Rana1*, Asifa Iqbal2, Riaz Warraich2, Martin Ruecker1, Andr M Eckardt1 and Nils-Claudius Gellrich1

Abstract
Objectives: In this retrospective study, we present a clinical review of our experience with tongue cancer in order
to obtain valid criteria for therapeutic decision-making.
Materials and methods: Between August 1999 and June 2011, a total of 398 patients with squamous cell
carcinoma of the tongue were treated at the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, King Edward Medical
University Lahore Pakistan. Data concerning patient characteristics, clinical and pathologic tumour characteristics
and treatment strategies and their results were obtained from a retrospective review of medical records. The
average follow-up was 4.6 years. Statistical analysis for survival was calculated by the method of Kaplan and Meier.
Results: There were 398 total patients. The mean age at diagnosis was 49.5 years,. 224 (56.3%) were male and 174
(43.7%) female (male/female ratio = 1.3:1).332/398 patients received surgical treatment, whereas 66 patients were
excluded from surgical treatment and received primary radio (chemo) therapy after biopsy. Tongue carcinoma
patients treated by non surgical treatment modalities had 5 years survival rate of 45.5% and patients with surgical
intervention had survival rate of 96.1%.
Conclusions: We recommend categorical bilateral neck dissection in order to reliably remove occult lymph node
metastases. Adjuvant treatment modalities should be applied more frequently in controlled clinical trials and
should generally be implemented in cases with unclear margins and lymphatic spread.
Clinical relevance: This study provides modern treatment strategies for the tongue carcinoma.
Keywords: tongue cancer, squamous cell carcinoma, resection, survival, prognostic factors

Introduction
Oral cancer located in the mouth, tongue or oropharynx
is a significant health problem throughout the world. Its
the eight most common cancer worldwide with 300.000
new cases reported annually [1]. Many countries feature
incidence rates in oral cancer that vary in men from 1 to
10 cases per 100 000 population [2]. Developing countries suffer from higher incidence rates in oral cancer
than developed countries [3]. Worryingly, the incidence
of the disease is reportedly rising in most countries such
as central and Eastern Europe and the USA [2,3]. The
overall five-year-survival rate for patients with oral cancer
* Correspondence: [email protected]
1
Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Hannover Medical School,
Hannover, Germany
Full list of author information is available at the end of the article

stagnated for the last 20 years [4]. The survival rate is

only 54% in industrial countries, one of the lowest rates
of all major cancers. Five-year survival rates in developing
countries reached the rate of 30% hardly [5]. The middle
east is geographically located in the high incidence and
mortality of oral cancers. Oral cancer is the second most
common malignancy in both genders in Pakistan [1] and
there is an epidemic alert of Oral cancers in Pakistan in
the year 2030 by WHO [2].
First report of the tongue in medical literature was in
1635 [3]. But Only a limited number of studies have
examined larger series of tongue cancer. Spiro and
Strong evaluated 314 patients (1957-1963) with tongue
cancer and found an overall 5-year survival rate of only
42% [3].

2011 Rana et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons
Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in
any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Rana et al. Head & Neck Oncology 2011, 3:43

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The incidence of tongue carcinoma in male is 6.5 per

100 000 per annum and in some parts of Europe and
South Asia is up to 8.0 per 100 000 per annum. The
tongue remains the most common intraoral site for oral
cancer worldwide [4].
In contrast to other sites of oral cancer the incidence of
the tongue carcinoma increasing in especially younger age
group [5-7]. This is linked with Human papilloma etiology
of tongue cancers [8]. This increase in the incidence needs
more expertise and sharing of the experiences of the tongue carcinoma.
The optimum structural and functional integrity of this
muscular organ of the Human body is vital for the life of
the suffering patients. The speech, swallowing and breathing is associated with integrity of the reconstructed tongue
muscles after surgical resection [9]. The anatomical and
physiological milking muscle action predispose to an early
invasion and metastasis of tongue carcinoma [10]. This
results in extensive resection of not only the tongue tissue
but also floor of mouth, oropharynx, tonsillar area along
with cervical lymph nodes dissection even in clinical N0
status for the complete palliation of the occult metastasis
[11].
The various treatment options for the tongue carcinoma include Surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy and
combined Modalities [12]. Due to the mutilating affects
of the surgical management of tongue carcinoma on the
quality of life, organ preservation techniques and treatment protocols have been discussed. The choice of the
treatment depends upon tumor factors such as site, size
(T stage), location and multiplicity, proximity to bone,
pathological features, histology grade and depth of invasion. The patient factors include status of cervical lymph
nodes, previous treatments medical condition of the
patient. The various flaps for mobile tongue include local
(mucosal, Buccinator flaps), local neck flap(infrahyoid),
free flaps (forearm free flap, antero-lateral thigh flap); For
the base of tongue local neck flap (infrahyoid), free flaps
(Latissimus dorsi free flap, Antero-lateral free flap, Rectus-abdominis free flap). The micro-vascular flap revolutionised the reconstruction of tongue and it was used
first time in 1963 [13] in general surgery and in head and
neck reconstruction in 1975 [14].
The resection defect classification guides clinicians for
the decision of the reconstructive flap design. According
to Urken et al tongue defects are difficult to classify; the
volume and function of residual tissue does the quantification of the defect. He classified tongue resection
defects as soft tissue defects of mobile tongue TM, base
of tongue T B and total glossectomy TG defects along
with neural defects. Further classification of TM is done
by longitudinal division in quarters and finally grouping
of defects with reconstructive guidelines is described
[15].

Page 2 of 8

The purpose of the present study was to give a precise

description of our experience with surgical based therapy of tongue cancer during 12 years in a country with
limited Human expertise and finances. Furthermore,
prognostic factors for survival were analyzed in order to
obtain valid criteria for therapeutic decision-making in
clinical routine.

Materials and methods

Between August 1999 and June 2011, a total of 398
patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the tongue were
treated at the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, King Edward Medical University Lahore Pakistan.
Data concerning patient characteristics, clinical and pathologic tumour characteristics and treatment strategies and
their results were obtained from a retrospective review of
medical records. The average follow-up was 4.6 years. Statistical analysis for survival was calculated by the method
of Kaplan and Meier. The relationship between the clinicpathologic variables and survival was assessed in univariate
analysis using the log rank test. A value of p 0.05 was
considered of to be statistically significant.
Results
There were 398 patients according to the including criteria. The mean age at diagnosis was 49.5 years, ranging
between 13 and 80 10.6 years. There were 224 men
(56.3%) and 174 (43.7%) women (male/female ratio =
1.3:1). The lesion size was T1 19/398 (4.8%), T2 60/398
(15.1%), T3 182/398 (45.7%) and T4 137/398 (34.41%)
(Table 1). The primary site was lateral border of the
mobile tongue 262/398 (65.8%), dorsum of tongue 36/398
(9.04%), base of the tongue 72/398 (181%) and all tongue
involvement 28/398 (7.03%). Midline extension was seen
in 128/398 (32.2%) of cases. Histopathologically 287/398
(72.1%) were well differentiated, 76/398 (19.1%) moderately differentiated, 12/398 (3%) were poorly differentiated,
12/398 (3%) were verrucous variants of squamous cell carcinoma and 11/398 (2.8%) were minor salivary gland
malignancies (Table 2).
332/398 patients received surgical treatment, whereas
66 patients were excluded from surgical treatment and
received primary radio (chemo) therapy after biopsy.
These patients refused surgery, were in inappropriate
condition for general anaesthesia or suffered from inoperable tumour disease. As a consequence, the proportion
of advanced tumour stages was higher in this group
(Table 1). 317/398 (79.6%) had no previous history of
premalignant oral lesion/condition where as 69/398
(17.3%) had the history of Oral premalignant lesion.12/
398 (3%) had recurrence of the disease (Table 3).
In patients with surgical therapy, the neck was staged
pN0, pN1, pN2 and pN3 in 49.5%, 18.4%, 14.9% and
0.3% of cases. Supra-omohyoid neck dissection was

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Page 3 of 8

Table 1 Tumour size (T-Status) of patients and surgical treatment and survival rates of patients with surgical and non
surgical management
Tumour size
No surgical management only radio chemotherapy

Years of survival

Total

24.2

13
4

19.7
6.1

1 year

2 year
3 year

1
0

2
0

3
1

4 year

15

22.7

5 year

11

18

27.3
100

21

35

66

1.5%

13.6%

31.8%

53.0%

100%

1 year

16

13

31

9.3

2 year

22

17

46

13.9

3 year
4 year

4
3

12
14

22
38

11
24

49
79

14.8
23.8

count
Percent

done in 212/398 (53.3%) of the patients where as radical

neck dissection in 88/398 (22.1%), bilateral neck dissection in 17/398(4.3%) patients; 15/398 (3.8%) had no
neck dissection (Table 4). The primary closure was done

16

7
3

T4

5 year
Total

T3

count

Years of survival

Percentage

T2

Percent
Surgical management

Total

T1

18

63

37

127

38.3

18

51

161

102

332

100

5.4%

15.4%

48.5%

30.7%

100%

in 38/398 (9.5%), local Myomucosal in 28/398(7%),

Delto-pectoral in 138/398 (34.7%), Radial forearm free
flap 100/398 (25.1%), Anterior thigh flap 16/398 (4.%),
Rectus abdominis 12/398 (3.0%) (Table 5).

Table 2 Histopathological variants with survival rates of Tongue carcinoma patients in surgical and non surgical
treatment options
Treatment

No surgical
management

Surgery done

Survival in
years

Histopathology

Total

Well
differentiated SCC

Moderately
differentiated
d SCC

Poorly
differentiated SCC

Verrucous
SCC

Basisq uamou s
SCC

16
(24.2%)

13
(19.7%)

4 (6.1%)

12

15
(22.7%)

11

18
(27.3%)

Total

41 62.1%

16 24.2%

2 3.0%

4 6.1%

3 4.5%

66
100.0%

25

31
(9.3%)

34

10

46
(13.9%)

34

11

49
(14.8%)

60

13

79
(23.8%)

93

21

127
(38.3%)

Total

246 74.1%

60 18.1%

10 3.0%

8 2.4%

8 2.4%

332
100.0%

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Page 4 of 8

Table 3 Previous history of Tongue carcinoma patients with their survival rate in surgical and non surgical treatment
options
Previous history
No surgical management only radio chemotherapy

Years of survival

Total

No history

H/O PML

H/O PMC

1 year

2 year
3 year

5
2

2
0

2
1

4
1

4 year

13

5 year

Count
Percent

Surgical management

Years of survival

Tota

38

13

57.6%

12.1%

10.6%

19.7%

1 year

21

2 year

44

46

3 year
4 year

38
62

10
8

0
1

1
8

5 year

102

22

267

50

13

80.4%

15.1%

0.6%

3.9%

Count
Percent

The par-operative frozen section technique for the

margin free of tumour cells was done in 68/398(17.1%)
patients; whereas histopathological reported tumour cell
positive margins were observed in 56/398 (14.1%) and
tumour cells negative margins were seen in 208/398
(52.3%). Neo adjuvant radiochemotherapy was done in
10/398 (2.5%), adjuvant in 198/398 (49.7%) whereas 124/
398 (31.2%) had no radiochemotherapy.66/398 (16.6%)
were managed by radiochemotherapy without surgical
intervention.
Overall 5 year survival rate was 349/398 (87.7%). The
survival rate was calculated with Kaplan Meier Log rank
with tumour size, treatment modality, previous history
of the patient, histopathological variant, neck dissection
options and radiochemotherapy modality.
Tongue carcinoma patients treated by non surgical
treatment modalities had 5 years survival rate of 45.5%
and patients with surgical intervention had survival rate of
96.1%.(Log Rank .000) (Figure 1). T1 tumour size had
100% survival rate where as T2, T3, T4 Tumour size had
survival rate of 80%,96.7%,77.4% respectively (Log Rank

Recurrence

.000).(Figure 2). Survival in both sexes was nearly equal

(87.5%, 87.9% Male female)(Log rank .833) (Figure 3).
Patients with no previous history of any lesion had maximum survival rate of 94.4% where as recurrent lesion had
worst prognosis with survival rate of 26.9% (Figure 4).
Patients with bilateral neck dissection had best survival
rate of 100% where as supra-omohyoid had survival rate of
95.8% where as patients with no surgical intervention of
neck had worst prognosis of 45.5% (Figure 5). Frozen section technique for surgical margin evaluation had survival
rate of 98.5% where as patients with no surgical intervention had survival rate of 45.5% (Figure 6). The Myomucosal and Rectus abdominal flap has survival rate of 100%
where as Radial forearm free flap has survival rate of 97%.;
Delto-pectoral flap has survival rate of 94.9%, primary closure 94.7%, and anterior thigh flap of 93.8% (Figure 7).
The well differentiated squamous cell carcinoma had survival rate of 88.9%, moderate differentiated squamous cell
carcinoma is 85.5%, poorly differentiated SCC and Verrucous SCC 91.7% each. The Basisquamous SCC survival
rate of 63.6% (Figure 8). Survival rate of adjuvant

Table 4 Neck dissection and survival rate in tongue carcinoma patient

Survival Years

Non Surgical

Neck dissection
Supra omohyoid

Radical

Bilateral

Local excision

Total

9
14

3
2

0
2

31
46
49

1
2

16
13

19
28

30

13

15

48

25

79

18

87

27

127

Total

66

Survival rate (%)

45.5

212

88

17

15

332

63.9%

26.5%

5.1%

4.5%

100.0%

96.1

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Page 5 of 8

Table 5 Surgical options and their survival in Tongue carcinoma patients

Survival Years

Non Surgical

Surgical Management
Primary closure

Myo-mucosal flap

Delto-Pectoral

Radial FFF

Ant. Thigh

Rectus Abdominis

14

12

16

13

18

15

10

22

15

11

34

24

18

16

50

40

Total

66

38

28

138

100

16

12

Survival rate (%)

45.5

94.7

100

94.9

97

93.8

100

96.1

radiochemotherapy was 95.5%, neoadjuvant 90.0% as compared to group of patients treated by radiochemotherapy
of 45.5%(Figure 9)

Discussion
The various treatment options for Head and Neck Squamous cell carcinoma including tongue carcinoma are
surgical, radio-chemotherapy and combination of both.
The outcomes of the treatment affect not only the aesthetics but may also compromise the functions of
speech swallowing of the suffering patients (Figure 10).
These affects may be of shorter duration or permanent leading to life style changes. The clinician decision
for the treatment option depends upon multiple tumour
and patient along with health care facilities available.
In this study we evaluated that up to 5 year survival
rate was better for the surgical management of tongue
carcinoma (96%) as compared to non surgical management (45%) (Table 1). According to literature surgical
management has better prognosis [16], [17], [18]. In our
study, almost 2.5% of the operated patients received
neoadjuvant radiochemotherapy prior to surgery and

Figure 1 Survival of patients with surgical treatment and non

surgical management (log rank p < 0.001).

almost 50% of patients in the surgical group received

postoperative radiation due to unclear margins, extensive tumour growth at the primary site, massive lymph
node involvement or extracapsular spread, reflecting the
scope of changing indications for radiotherapy during a
period of three decades. Due to medical almost 17% had
no surgical management but only radiochemotherapy.
Due to non randomized selection we were unable to
determine the impact of radiochemotherapy.
The smaller tumour size T has direct prognostic value.
Smaller the tumour size better the prognosis this
statement is generalized for al HNSCC but most appropriate for the tongue cancer [19]. We have the consistent results (Figure 2). The resection defect is smaller so
better the reconstruction and functional rehabilitation.
The prognostic pathogenesis of HNSCC including
tongue carcinoma is better known today. The impact
HPV, field cancerization and pathogenesis of oral premalignant lesion/conditions with malignant potential in
tongue carcinoma patients are also affecting the treatment outcomes [20].In our study we have the same

Figure 2 Survival of patients with different tumour size (log

rank p < 0.001).

Rana et al. Head & Neck Oncology 2011, 3:43

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Figure 3 Survival rate of tongue carcinoma in both gender (log

rank p = 0.833).

Figure 4 Survival rate of tongue carcinoma with previous

history (log rank p = 0.012).

Figure 5 Survival rate of tongue carcinoma in neck

management (log rank p < 0.001).

Page 6 of 8

Figure 6 Survival rate in surgical margin management (log

rank p < 0.001).

Figure 7 Survival rate of Tongue carcinoma in different

surgical reconstruction.

Figure 8 Survival rate of tongue carcinoma

histopathological variants (log rank p = 0.038).

in

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Page 7 of 8

Conclusions
Radial forearm free flap was most frequently performed
(almost 25%) as compared to other free flaps with survival rate of 97%; whereas Deltopectoralis pedicled flap
was used to reconstruct tongue in almost 35% of
patients of tongue carcinoma with upto 5 years of survival rate of 95%. We recommend categorical bilateral
neck dissection in order to reliably remove occult lymph
node metastases. Adjuvant treatment modalities should
be applied more frequently in controlled clinical trials
and should generally be implemented in cases with
unclear margins and lymphatic spread.

Figure 9 Survival rate of radio-chemotherapy in tongue

carcinoma patients (log rank p < 0.001).

results; the patients with no previous history of premalignant lesion, condition and recurrence had better 5
years survival rate as compared to other groups (Figure
4 Log Rank .012).
The management of neck is an important decision for
the clinician. In our study up to 5 years survival is better
in patients with neck management (Table 4). We have
seen that almost 64% with supraomohyoid neck dissection had 5 year survival rate as it was most frequently
performed. The N0 status in tongue carcinoma is also
requisite for the selective neck dissection [21].
In our study Radial forearm free flap was most frequently performed (almost 25%) as compared to other
free flaps with survival rate of 97%; whereas Deltopectoralis pedicled flap was used to reconstruct tongue in
almost 35% of patients of tongue carcinoma with upto 5
years of survival rate of 95% (Table 5).

Clinical relevance
This study provides modern treatment strategies for the
tongue carcinoma.
Conflict of interests statement
The authors declare that they have no competing
interests.
Consent statement
Written informed consent was obtained from the patient
for publication of this case report and accompanying
images. A copy of the written consent is available for
review by the Editor-in-Chief of this journal.
Funding
The article processing charges are funded by the
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), Open Acess
Publizieren.
Author details
1
Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Hannover Medical School,
Hannover, Germany. 2Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, King
Edward Medical University, Lahore, Pakistan.
Authors contributions
MR, AI, RW, MRU, AME and NCG conceived of the study and participated in
its design and coordination. MR and AI made substantial contributions to
data acquisation and conception of manuscript. MR drafted and designed
the manuscript. MR and AI performed the statistical analysis. NCG and AME
were involved in revising the manuscript. All authors read and approved the
final manuscript.
Received: 18 September 2011 Accepted: 29 September 2011
Published: 29 September 2011

Figure 10 Reconstructed defect of the toung. Final result of the

radial forearm flap after 2 Weeks.

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doi:10.1186/1758-3284-3-43
Cite this article as: Rana et al.: Modern surgical management of tongue
carcinoma - A clinical retrospective research over a 12 years period.
Head & Neck Oncology 2011 3:43.

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