Title: - Demographic and morphological evaluation of tumor and tumor like lesions of Oral cavity- A tertiary care hospital based study with a brief review. Context: - Oral: cavity is subjected to broad spectrum of agents leading to varied changes that can become the cause of suspicion of cancer and anxiety. Aim:  To evaluate the clinico-pathological profile of tumor and tumor like lesions that can occur in oral cavity. Setting and design: Cross sectional study in Pathology department of a tertiary care hospital. Material and methods: - Morphological and clinical   evaluation of all the biopsies and surgically resected specimens, was conducted over a period of two years. SPSS-15 software was used to calculate the statistical significance of associations.   Observations: - Eight percent of all the tumours and tumour like lesions, occurred in oral cavity. Male preponderance was noted (64.4%), with average age of males and females being 44.9 years and 46.2 years respectively. Buccal mucosa was the most common site (37.1%). Malignant tumours formed the largest group (59.4%), 14.7% were benign, 11.9% premalignant and 14% were tumour like lesions. Most common malignant lesion was squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). All the cases of oral SCC had history of tobacco consumption (p value=0.000). Conclusion: - Amongst all tumour and tumour like lesions of oral cavity, OSCC occurred predominantly. Histopathology played a crucial role in determining the exact nature of oral cavity lesion. As oral cancers are known to spread rapidly, cost-effective oral cancer screening and awareness initiatives should be introduced urgently and intensively in high-risk populations of India.

Keywords:-  Oral cavity; Oral cancer;Tumour like lesions; Tumours