ORAL HYGIENE
HINDSIGHT IS 20/20:
Missing the Oral and Oropharyngeal Cancer Diagnosis
Jo-Anne Jones, President, RDH Connection Inc. As a successful entrepreneur and international, award winning speaker, Jo-Anne has been selected as one of DPR’s Top 25 Women in Dentistry and is a returning 2017 Dentistry Today CE Leader for the 7th consecutive year. Jo-Anne is president of an educational and clinical training company and a sought after writer for leading dental journals and publications across the U.S., Canada, and the UK. Her frank and open style of lecturing complemented by the provision of clinical resources has earned many loyal followers. She may be contacted at jjones@jo-annejones.com
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oralhygiene
mid our present-day pandemic, the disease of oral and oropharyngeal cancer once again has a much larger adversary. April has come and gone with very little focus on it being Oral Cancer Awareness Month. All attention understandably has been on the COVID-19 pandemic. However, globally, the picture of oral and oropharyngeal cancer is very troubling. With the data that is available through reporting centres, we understand the burden to be approximately 640,000 cases worldwide. This number repeats itself every year with close to 50 percent of those diagnosed today not surviving beyond five years. The heartbreaking aspect is that most cases are discovered in the later stages, reducing the five-year survival rate dramatically. This is worthy of our attention and our commitment to do all we can to combat the disease and discover it in its earliest stages. As a global community we are feeling vulnerable to the COVID19 pandemic. When compared to oral and oropharyngeal cancer, we have taken some solace in recognizing that we can mitigate our risk by abstaining from using tobacco
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products and alcohol. However, don’t be misled. The rising number of oral and predominantly oropharyngeal cases are caused by a very common virus; a virus so common that the CDC (Centers for Disease Control) states that almost every adult will have an infection in their lifetime. Here are the facts. • Human papillomavirus or HPVrelated oropharyngeal cancer rose 225% in the same time period as a 50% decline was witnessed in HPV-negative oropharyngeal cancer.1,2 Refer to Figure 1. • HPV-related oropharyngeal cancer surpassed HPV-related cervical cancer in 2015 as the leading anatomical site for HPV-related cancers in the body. 3 Refer to Figure 2. • Studies estimate 70–90% of all new oropharyngeal cancers are HPV-related.4 • Patients are more likely to be younger, white males in their 40s and 50s, never smokers or have reduced alcohol exposure.4 • Males are at greater risk with an incidence of 4 to 1 over females. 5 • Symptoms vary greatly from the typical oral cancer symptoms with which we are familiar.
MAY 2020
