For oral cancer, early detection is key
2013-05-09T00:00:00ZFor oral cancer, early detection is key stltoday.com
For Patrick Click, oral cancer only meant a weeklong scare. For one American every hour of every day this year, it will mean death.
Get your mouth checked — because you never know. That’s what Click, 73, advises.
When he went in for a routine teeth cleaning last month, Click mentioned to the hygienist a sore spot he had in his mouth.
His dentist shined an infrared light in his mouth. Something looked wrong, so he referred Click to an oral surgeon at Barnes-Jewish Hospital. When the biopsy came back, it showed a small cancerous tumor.
That tiny sore? Click was shocked and concerned. Both of his parents died of cancer.
As with most cancers, earlier detection yields better outcomes. But with oral cancer, which in the latter stages often metastasizes in the surrounding lymph nodes, the difference between catching it sooner rather than later is especially stark.
“The doctor said I caught it in time,” Click said. “We could just cut it out and that would be the end.”
Click, who owns an air conditioning business in Florissant, only missed a few days of work for the surgery. Now it’s like nothing ever happened.
“Going to the dentist saved a serious thing from happening,” Click said.
Just how serious? About 8,000 people a year in the United States die from oral cancer, and there will be 42,000 new cases this year.
But it’s the survival rate that is the truly scary part: only 30 to 40 percent if discovered in the later stages.
The death rate for oral cancer is higher than that of other higher profile cancers such as Hodgkin’s lymphoma, testicular, thyroid and skin cancer.
“The biggest factor in the survival rate is when the cancer is found or caught,” said Dr. Chip Haines of Ballas Dental Care. “If we can find it early before the symptoms develop, the survival rate is a lot higher — in the 80s.”
Haines says dentists nowadays are trained to conduct oral cancer screenings for every patient.
They look in the mouth, check under the chin, feel the lymph nodes and use advance screening tools like the infrared light that can see changes in the tissue invisible to the naked eye.
Patients need to be vigilant too. Early indicators for oral cancer include red or white discoloration in the soft tissue of the mouth, sores that do not heal within two weeks and long-lasting hoarseness.
Those symptoms can develop into advanced indicators such as the sensation that something is stuck in the throat, numbness and difficulty swallowing or moving the jaw or tongue.
Tobacco use is the biggest risk factor for oral cancer. Alcohol consumption can also lead to the disease.
Haines says that research also suggests an increased link between Human Papillomavirus (HPV) and oral cancer in nonsmoking individuals.
The best thing patients can do for themselves is visit the dentist regularly throughout the year, according to Haines.
“Many, many people die from oral cancer because they’re not looked at,” said Dr. Steven Goldberg, a dentist in Boca Raton, Fla., and the creator of Dental Vibe, a painless injection device.
“Anything we can do to make early detection easier is really the key,” Goldberg said. “For some reason a lot of people don’t take oral cancer all that seriously, but there’s more oral cancer than cervical cancer.”
“If we gave more oral cancer screenings, there would be less oral cancer. It’s a simple thing,” he said.
Click, who gets his teeth cleaned every four months, says he was happy to have caught the tumor so early, especially after learning about oral cancer’s severity in the later stages.
“It came as a big surprise,” he said. “I never considered something like that.”
Get your mouth checked — because you never know. That’s what Click, 73, advises.
When he went in for a routine teeth cleaning last month, Click mentioned to the hygienist a sore spot he had in his mouth.
His dentist shined an infrared light in his mouth. Something looked wrong, so he referred Click to an oral surgeon at Barnes-Jewish Hospital. When the biopsy came back, it showed a small cancerous tumor.
That tiny sore? Click was shocked and concerned. Both of his parents died of cancer.
As with most cancers, earlier detection yields better outcomes. But with oral cancer, which in the latter stages often metastasizes in the surrounding lymph nodes, the difference between catching it sooner rather than later is especially stark.
“The doctor said I caught it in time,” Click said. “We could just cut it out and that would be the end.”
Click, who owns an air conditioning business in Florissant, only missed a few days of work for the surgery. Now it’s like nothing ever happened.
“Going to the dentist saved a serious thing from happening,” Click said.
Just how serious? About 8,000 people a year in the United States die from oral cancer, and there will be 42,000 new cases this year.
But it’s the survival rate that is the truly scary part: only 30 to 40 percent if discovered in the later stages.
The death rate for oral cancer is higher than that of other higher profile cancers such as Hodgkin’s lymphoma, testicular, thyroid and skin cancer.
“The biggest factor in the survival rate is when the cancer is found or caught,” said Dr. Chip Haines of Ballas Dental Care. “If we can find it early before the symptoms develop, the survival rate is a lot higher — in the 80s.”
Haines says dentists nowadays are trained to conduct oral cancer screenings for every patient.
They look in the mouth, check under the chin, feel the lymph nodes and use advance screening tools like the infrared light that can see changes in the tissue invisible to the naked eye.
Patients need to be vigilant too. Early indicators for oral cancer include red or white discoloration in the soft tissue of the mouth, sores that do not heal within two weeks and long-lasting hoarseness.
Those symptoms can develop into advanced indicators such as the sensation that something is stuck in the throat, numbness and difficulty swallowing or moving the jaw or tongue.
Tobacco use is the biggest risk factor for oral cancer. Alcohol consumption can also lead to the disease.
Haines says that research also suggests an increased link between Human Papillomavirus (HPV) and oral cancer in nonsmoking individuals.
The best thing patients can do for themselves is visit the dentist regularly throughout the year, according to Haines.
“Many, many people die from oral cancer because they’re not looked at,” said Dr. Steven Goldberg, a dentist in Boca Raton, Fla., and the creator of Dental Vibe, a painless injection device.
“Anything we can do to make early detection easier is really the key,” Goldberg said. “For some reason a lot of people don’t take oral cancer all that seriously, but there’s more oral cancer than cervical cancer.”
“If we gave more oral cancer screenings, there would be less oral cancer. It’s a simple thing,” he said.
Click, who gets his teeth cleaned every four months, says he was happy to have caught the tumor so early, especially after learning about oral cancer’s severity in the later stages.
“It came as a big surprise,” he said. “I never considered something like that.”
Symptoms of oral cancer
- Swelling, lumps or rough spots on the lips or gums
- Red or white patches in the mouth
- Unexplained bleeding in the mouth
- Numbness, loss of feeling or tenderness in the face, mouth or neck
- Sores that do not heal within two weeks
- Difficulty chewing, swallowing or moving the jaw or tongue
- Chronic hoarseness, ear pain or dramatic weight loss
http://www.stltoday.com/lifestyles/health-med-fit/for-oral-cancer-early-detection-is-key/article_f4c0f6c9-4456-5754-91a8-f4318b28c0bc.html
