Radiotherapy of basal-cell and squamous-cell carcinomas of the lips

Lip carcinomas are frequent and, among them, the squamous-cell forms are characterized by the possible onset of loco-regional metastases. Therefore, to state the effectiveness and safety of the available treatments is always of great interest. To this aim, a retrospective study was performed on 51 patients affected by 38 squamous-cell carcinomas and 13 basal-cell carcinomas of the lips (T1_1-3 N₀) who underwent orthovoltage radiotherapy, in the period 1977-1998. Forty-nine complete remissions were obtained in 96.07 % of irradiated lesions. The five-year cure rate was of 91.94%. The cosmetic results were good or acceptable in 95.91% of cases. The functional outcome was very good in the whole series. So far, no complications or sequelae have been observed.