Epidemiological Landscape of Oral Tumors in Benghazi: A Retrospective Analysis

Abstract

The oral mucosa can be affected by non-neoplastic and neoplastic lesions, which significantly contribute to patients' mortality and morbidity, particularly with late detection. The study aimed to evaluate the demographic features, clinical presentations, histopathological features, and risk factor associations of oral cavity tumors. The study was a retrospective study at the Faculty of Dentistry, University of Benghazi, using the records of 164 patients who had been diagnosed with oral cavity tumors, which were clinically and by biopsy in the period from 2016 to 2019. The results showed that benign oral cavity tumors accounted for 74.4%, and premalignant oral cavity tumors were 9.7%, while malignant oral cavity tumors15.9%. The mean age of patients was approximately 40 years old. The major clinical presentation of oral cavity tumors was painless swelling (73.8%), affecting the jaw (29.9%) commonly. According to the tumor origin, 75% of cases had non-odontogenic tumors, with benign tumors being predominantly of mesenchymal origin (98.1%), and premalignant lesions were more significantly associated with mixed tissue origin (26.7%). Malignant tumors occurred most commonly associated with tissues derived from salivary glands (68.7%). We conclude that histopathological analysis is important in the establishment of the definitive diagnosis and early detection of oral cavity tumors.