Overcoming oral cancer menace
Journal Title: Nursing and Health Care - Year 2017, Vol 2, Issue 1
Abstract
Oral cancer is the eighth most common cancer in the world among men and the 14th among women, accounting for nearly 3 per cent of all cancer cases worldwide.1 Despite better understanding of the disease process and numerous advances in treatment, the 5-year survival rate of oral cancer has remained approximately 50 per cent.2 Deaths associated with oral cancer are particularly high because this cancer is all too frequently diagnosed late in its development. Discovery at these later stages not only increases the probability of metastasis, but also give time to the primary tumour to invade more deeply into surrounding structures. A solution to this problem is be to enhance the knowledge and clinical skills of oral health care professionals in order to detect oral potentially malignant disorders (OPMDs) and/or oral cancers at their earliest disease process. This can be achieved by increasing public knowledge and awareness about the significance of standard oral cancer screening as well as opportunistic screening of high-risk groups by general dental practitioners (GDPs). Another approach could be the introduction and usage of adjunctive tools that may facilitate the oral health care professionals to identify or assess suspicious oral lesions that may have the potential of becoming malignant. It is vital to provide clinical guidelines to the GDPs on the proper utility of oral cancer screening measures to not only facilitate them in clinical decisionmaking but also making these decisions informed and accurate. The first and the foremost step in the screening of oral cancer is to attain a detailed and comprehensive history of the patient followed by a systematic visual oral examination, where a health practitioner visually examines both extraoral and intraoral region to identify and record any oral mucosal abnormality that appear suspicious and need further investigation. If a lesion is identified, detailed evaluation of the lesion with particular attention to specific characteristics such as duration, size, colour, site, texture and any associated symptoms is performed. In addition to writing all the clinical notes and taking an image of the clinically evident oral lesion at the first visit, it is recommended that clinical pictures are taken during each of the follow-up appointments. This not only serve the medico legal purpose but also helps the health practitioner to compare the progress of the lesion over a period of time and to modify or continue the treatment plan accordingly.
Authors and Affiliations
Kamran Habib Awan
Keywords
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