Demography and Histopathological presentations of oral and maxillo-facial region tumours in Jamshoro, Pakistan.

Introduction: Oral and Pharyngeal cancers are the sixth most common cancer globally. In developing countries, the annual incidence of oral cancer is around 275,000 cases while 130,300 cases of pharyngeal cancers excluding naso-pharynx. Salivary glands tumors are rare accounting for less than 5 % of tumors of head and neck region. The annual incidence of these tumors is 0.05 to 2 cases per 100,000 populations. Majority (over two third quarters) of salivary gland tumors occurs in the parotid glands of which most of them (2/3rd) of them are benign in nature. While most common parotid gland’s benign tumor is Pleomorphic Adenoma. Objective: To assess the morphology and histopathological features of oral and maxillo-facial region tumours among the patients in Liaquat University Hospital, Jamshoro, Sindh. Methodology: A Cross-sectional study was conducted at Liaquat University Hospital, Jamshoro. Data was collected regarding socio-demographic features, anatomical location of tumours and relevant history of patients admitted at surgical, medical and ENT units of Liaquat University Hospital, Jamshoro from January 2016 to January 2018. Histopathological diagnostic record was collected from Research and Diagnostic Laboratory of Liaquat University Hospital, Jamshoro. Results: A total of 160 biopsies were collected from surgical, medical and ENT units of Liaquat University Hospital with maximum (43%) of biopsies were from ENT unit. Most (51%) tumours were benign and 37% were malignant in nature. These tumours of oral and maxillo-facial region were mostly (38%) located in parotid region. Histopathological findings of this study revealed that majority (51%) tumours were Pleomorphic adenoma while (20%) of malignant tumours were Mucoepidermoid Carcinoma. Conclusion: Based on findings of the study, we conclude that the most common anatomical location of oral and faciomaxillary tumours, in either gender, is parotid region. The majority of oral and faciomaxillary tumours were benign; frequently occurring benign tumour was pleomorphic adenoma while most frequent malignant tumour was Muco-epidermoid Carcinoma.   Key Words: Faciomaxillary tumours, Salivary glands, Pleomorphic adenoma.