A REVIEW OF PATTERN OF HEAD AND NECK MALIGNANCIES SEEN IN SOKOTO, NIGERIA BETWEEN 2005 and 2010

BACKGROUND Head and neck cancers have a global burden and are more burdensome especially in the developing countries where risk factors, late presentation and low socioeconomic status still predominate. OBJECTIVE To determine any change in the pattern of head and neck cancers in the Usmanu Danfodiyo University Teaching Hospital, Sokoto after 5 years. METHOD This is a retrospective five year study (2005-2010) of 146 histologically diagnosed head and neck cancers from the registers of the department of histopathology. RESULTS One hundred and forty six head and neck cancer patients were studied representing 18.6% of the total number of 787 histologically diagnosed malignancies during the study period (2005-2010). There were 93 males (63.7%) and 53 female (36.3%). The male to female ratio was 1.8:1. The ages of patients ranged from3-89 years with the mean age of 41.6 ± 20.5 years. The highest number of patients was seen in the th 5 decade (21.2%) of life. There were 112(76.7%) carcinomas, 20(13.7%) lymphomas, 5(3.4%) sarcomas and 9(6.2%) blastomas. Seventy cases (47.9%) were head and neck squamous cell carcinoma. Sinonasal carcinoma 24(16.4%) was the commonest Head and neck cancer. Retinoblastoma 5(3.4%) was the commonest childhood head and neck cancer. CONCLUSION There was no significant change in the pattern of the head and neck cancers (P > 0.05). Sinonasal cancinoma was the commonest head and neck malignant tumour. Head and cancers still remains a challenge in this region.