Characteristics and in-hospital morbidity trends associated with oral and oropharyngeal cancers in Brazil.

Background: Brazil experienced an expansion of the population's access to oral health policies after the creation of the Unified Health System (SUS, Sistema Único de Saúde). Through public policies, the consolidation of Primary Health Care (PHC) and the incorporation of dental care into primary and hospital care took place. The objective of this study was to identify epidemiological aspects, including the temporal trend, of hospital morbidity from oral and oropharyngeal cancer in Brazil, considering hospitalizations for this neoplasm in a hospital network linked to the public care system.

Methods: Observational study based on information on hospital admissions for oral cancer throughout Brazil. The research used data from the Brazilian Cancer Registry Information System. For the temporal series analysis, generalized linear regression model was used with the Prais-Winsten method.

Results: Of the 121,971 patients hospitalized with oral and oropharyngeal cancers, 76.40% were male and 23.60% were female, resulting in a M:F ratio of 3.24:1. Regarding the anatomical region of involvement among hospitalized patients with oral cavity neoplastic lesions, there was a predominance in non-specific places in the mouth, such as the floor of the mouth, soft and hard palate, among others (32.68%), followed by lesions in the region of tongue (28.89%). In this population, the predominant age group was between the fifth decade (31.09%) and sixth decade of life (24.99%); men presented neoplastic lesions of oral and oropharyngeal cancers at an earlier age than women. In all regions of the country, the staging of cases diagnosed in the tertiary health network accredited to the José Alencar Gomes da Silva National Cancer Institute (INCA) was late, with higher tendency for metastasis. The temporal trend of the adjusted in-hospital morbidity rates showed to be increasing in the Northeast, South and Midwest regions for the male gender. For females, they were increasing in the Northeast and South regions.

Conclusions: It is concluded that the distribution of in-hospital morbidity rates of oral and oropharyngeal cancers in the country is irregular. There is a greater number of cases identified by the study in male patients and in the Southeast and South regions; with an increasing tendency of this coefficient in both genders.