Oral soft-tissue sarcomas diagnosed in an oral pathology service: a 16year experience

Objective: This study analyzed the prevalence and clinic-pathological features of soft-tissue sarcomas diagnosed in a single-center of oral pathology from a School of Dentistry in Brazil. Materials and methods: All consecutive cases of intra-oral soft-tissue sarcomas diagnosed between January of 2002 and December of 2018 were retrieved from the files; patient data (sex, age and race) and characteristics of the lesions (site, size, clinical aspect and duration of injury) were collected. Results: Among a total of 62,255 biopsies diagnosed in the studied period, soft-tissue oral sarcomas comprised 76 cases (0.12%). Kaposi sarcoma, rhabdomyosarcoma, leiomyosarcoma encompassed 64.5% of the cases, and 53% of these were diagnosed as Kaposi Sarcoma. Male patients were more affected (59.2%) and white patients comprised 50%. In general, 39.4% of the patients were between 21-40yo. Conclusion: Soft-tissue sarcomas are rare in oral soft-tissue and in our pathology service, they comprised only 0.12% of all diseases diagnosed in the studied period. Kaposi sarcoma was the most frequent, followed by leiomyosarcoma and rhabdomyosarcoma. Thus, it is important for stomatologists and pathologists to be aware of their characteristics when examining oral mucosa, mainly their peculiarities regarding patient’s age, clinical appearance, and site of occurrence.