Approximately 30,000 new cases of oral cancer are diagnosed each year in the United States. According to the American Cancer Society, oral cancer occurs almost as frequently as leukemia and claims almost as many lives as melanoma cancer.

Routine, careful examination of patients is appropriate and necessary. This can easily be achieved during a regular dental visit. The stage at which an oral cancer is diagnosed is critical to the course of the disease. When detected at its earliest stage, oral cancer is more easily treated and cured. When detected late, the overall five-year survival rate is below 50 percent.

Risk Factors

The demographics of those who develop this cancer have been consistent for some time.

Smoking and alcohol are recognised as major risk factors, and as most cases of oral cancer are discovered over age 40, it is believed they have an accumulative effect over time.

Oral cancer is increasingly being diagnosed in patients well below this age. Exact causes for those affected at a younger age are now becoming clearer in peer reviewed research. There are links to young men and women who use "smokeless" chewing or spit tobacco.

It is also possible that those in this younger age group have a causal link which is viral based, since the amount of time they have been exposed to other known causative agents such as tobacco is short. The human papilloma virus has now been shown to be sexually transmitted between partners, and is implicated in the increasing incidence of young non-smoking oral cancer patients. This is the same virus that is the causative agent in more than 90% of all cervical cancers

There are studies which indicate a diet low in fruits and vegetables could be a risk factor, and that conversely, one high in these foods may have a protective value against many types of cancer.

Symptoms

Precancerous lesions of the oral soft tissues usually start as white or red patches which are asymptomatic, and tissue changes can be difficult to see. Over a period of time as the cellular structure continues to change, and as the process progresses, the surface becomes affected and lesions become easier to notice. One of the real dangers of this cancer, is that in its early stages, it can go unnoticed. It can be painless, and little in the way of physical changes may be obvious.