Background: Tongue cancer is the most common cancer in oral cavity and often occurs in men over 50 years of age. Although it can be detected early, most patients have late diagnosis and treatment. Objectives: Remark on various clinical characteristics and treatment result of mobile tongue cancer at K Hospital from 1994 to 2004. Subjects and method: A prospective study was carried out on 290 patients with mobile tongue cancer treated in K Hospital between 1994 and 2004. Results: Among the 290 patients, there were 102 women and 170 men, the male/female ratio = 1.4:1. Cancer of the tongue was most seen at the age of 50-69 years old (52.2%). Common initial symptoms were the tumor of the tongue (27.6%) and tongue ulceration (28.3%). 91% of lesions were on the free border of the tongue. 45.9% patients had metastases in local lymph nodes. Most patients were diagnosed at the advance stage (stage III: 43.8%, stage IV: 25.5%). Squamous cell carcinoma accounted for 99.3%. 38.2% of cervical non-palpable nodes were pathological metastases. Surgical treatments and radiotherapy were commonly used (24.1% and 43.1%, respectively). Conclusion: Tongue cancer often metastasized early into cervical lymph nodes. It is required to diagnose at the early stage to improve treatment outcomes.
mobile tongue cancer ; clinical characteristic ; treatment

Objective To isolate α-mangostin (AMG) from the peels of mangosteen (Garcinia mangostana L.), grown in Vietnam, and to investigate antibiofilm activity of this compound against three Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) strains, one of which was methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) and the other two strains were methicillin-sensitive S. aureus (MSSA). Methods AMG in n-hexane fraction was isolated on a silica gel column and chemically analyzed by HPLC and NMR. The antibiofilm activity of this compound was investigated by using a 96-well plate model for the formation of biofilms. Biofilm biomass was quantified using crystal violet. The viability of cells was observed under confocal microscopy using LIVE/DEAD BacLight stains. Biofilm composition was determined using specific chemical and enzyme tests for polysaccharide, protein and DNA. Membrane-damaging activity was assayed by measuring the hemolysis of human red blood cells in presence of AMG. Results The results indicated that the isolated AMG, with a purity that exceeded 98%, had minimal inhibitory concentrations in the range of 4.6–9.2 μmol/L for the three strains tested. Interestingly, the MSSA strains were more sensitive to AMG than the MRSA strain. Minimal bactericidal concentrations were 2-fold higher than the minimal inhibitory concentration values for the three strains, indicating that AMG was a bactericidal compound. AMG also prevented biofilm formation effectively, albeit that again the MRSA strain was the most resistant. Interestingly, biofilms of the MRSA strain contained protein as a main component of the extracellular matrix, whereas this was polysaccharide in the MSSA strains. This might relate to the resistance of the MRSA 252 strain to AMG. Assays using human red blood cells indicated that AMG caused significant membrane damage with 50% of cell lysis occurred at concentration of about 36 μmol/L. Conclusions Our results provide evidence that the isolated AMG has inhibitory activity against biofilm formation by S. aureus, including MRSA. Thus, isolated AMG proposes a high potential to develop a novel phytopharmaceutical for the treatment of MRSA.