Objective: Head and neck cancers account for 17.6% of all malignant neoplasms. Data on the incidence of head and neck cancers and histological subtypes in Turkey are limited. This study aimed to provide an overview of statistics for head and neck cancers.

Material and Method: This retrospective and descriptive study included 1973 cases of in-situ carcinomas, malignant and borderline neoplasia from the head and neck region in a period of 5 years, diagnosed at Dr.Lütfi Kırdar Kartal Education and Research Hospital's Department of Pathology. Demographic data of patients and data from histopathological report were recorded. The topography of all tumours was coded according to the International Classification of Diseases for Oncology, 2nd and 3rd edition and histological and behavioral codes were given according to ICD-O-3. Data was entered and analyzed using Microsoft Excel™, version 2010.

Results: Male and female ratio was 1.03 for head and neck cancers. The most common sites for males were described as the ratio in head and neck cancers and all malignant tumours as follows: the skin (non-melanoma) (48.4%-8.2%), the larynx (12.6%-2.3%), the thyroid (11.1%-1.2%), the lips (7.8%-1.3%), and the nasopharynx (3.1%-0.5%). The most common sites for females were as follows: the thyroid (45.3%-8.3%), the skin (non-melanoma) (39.6%-7.3%), the lips (3.6%-0.6%), the nasopharynx (2.2%-0.4%) and the eye (1.7%-0.3%). The male: female ratio was 25.2 for larynx cancers. The most common histological types and rates for males and females were also given.

Conclusion: This descriptive epidemiological pathology-based cancer incidence study has relative value for describing head and neck cancer incidences in the İstanbul region and shown that pathology report-based descriptive epidemiological studies are still valuable for determination of the regional distribution of cancer incidence out of the active cancer registration regions.