Malignant tumours of temporomandibular joint

BACKGROUND: Malignant tumours of the temporomandibular joint (MTTMJ) are extremely rare. Studies describing its unique epidemiology, clinicopathological features, treatment and prognosis comprehensively are limited. To address these issues, current investigation was performed. METHODS: A retrospective research was carried out by using population-based data from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database (1973–2016). RESULTS: Data for a total of 734 patients, including 376 men and 358 women, was found. The median age was 47 years. The 5-year and 10-year disease specific survival (DSS) rates were 69.2 and 63.6%, respectively. Significant differences in DSS were found according to age, race, tumour type, AJCC/TNM stage, surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy and different treatment modalities (P < 0.05). In the multivariate survival analysis, age > 44 years and AJCC stage III and IV were associated with poor DSS. CONCLUSION: MTTMJ was mostly found in white people with a median age of 47 years without any sex predominance. Patient’s age and AJCC stage was independent predictor of DSS.