Introduction: Malignant tumors of the lower lip may have a variety of histopathology forms. The diagnosis and treatment of premalignant lesions are extremely important to avoid their malignant evolution. The lower lip tumor diagnosis is based on a series of correlations: anamnestic, clinical, laboratory and histopathological (the latter giving the certain diagnose).
Material and methods: This study was carried out by selecting the cases with lower lip tumors operated between January 2012 and July 2014, in the Plastic Surgery and Reconstructive Microsurgery Clinic of Bucharest Clinical Emergency Hospital. The variables considered in the study were the following: age, gender, exposure to risk factors, diagnosis, and histopathology.
Results: The histopathological examination revealed 63% squamous cell carcinoma, 30% basal cell carcinomas, 5% keratoacanthoma and 2% actinic keratosis. Men were the predominantly affected genre, with a percentage of 70%. In the group of patients studied, 66% were smokers.
Discussions: The rate of the malignant transformation of premalignant lesion was 32.6% for keratoacanthoma, 16.9% for actinic cheilitis, 10% for actinic keratoses.
Conclusions: There were no clinical or laboratory features to plead for the pre-malignant or malignant character of the of a lower lip tumor, consequently histopathological examination was used for the diagnosis of the lesion. Due to the high percentage of malignant transformation of precancerous lesions, particularly in the form of squamous cell carcinoma, the surgical attitude intending to eradicate a lower lip tumor from an oncological point of view was the excision with oncologic safety margins followed by a lip reconstruction.
Keywords: actinic keratosis; keratoacanthoma; lower lip tumor; premalignant lesions; squamous cell carcinoma.