The effects of urea treatment in combination with curettage in extensive lip cancers.

Thirty cases of lip cancer in 28 patients, 23 of which were extensive or very extensive, were treated with local urea injections in combination with curettage. Out of the 30 cases there were 26 squamous cell carcinomas, three basal cell carcinomas extending to the mucosa from the skin of the lips, and one adenocarcinoma of the mucosa of the interior surface of the upper lip. This treatment was effective in all our patients. Recurrences appeared in four patients. These were easily treated in three out of the four patients who returned for treatment, by the same method. In three cases metastases appeared in the lymphnodes of the neck, which were surgically treated.