When we chat, we often encounter people asking, “How can cancer grow in your mouth?” and the surprised expression on the other person’s face is always memorable. Today, we are going to educate and popularize the knowledge about oral cancer. First of all, we need to understand a few professional terms: oral and maxillofacial surgery is a specialty that focuses on the surgical treatment of oral cancer.
Oral and maxillofacial surgery is a discipline that focuses on surgical treatment and the prevention and treatment of oral organs (teeth, alveolar bone, lips, cheeks, tongue, palate, pharynx, etc.), facial soft tissues, maxillofacial bones (maxilla, mandible, zygoma, etc.), temporomandibular joints, salivary glands and certain related diseases of the neck. Like other medical specialties, oral and maxillofacial surgery is a medical subspecialty gradually developed and formed in practice. It is because of the formation and participation of oral and maxillofacial surgery that dentistry in China has developed into dentistry. In many countries it is classified as head and neck surgery, in China it follows the former Soviet Union categorization and is included in stomatology-stomatology. Malignancy: It is what people call cancer, and it is a collective name for more than 100 related diseases. When a mutation occurs in the cells in the body, it will keep dividing without the control of the body and finally form cancer. All organs in people’s body are made up of cells.
Cells grow and differentiate to meet the needs of the body, and this orderly process keeps people healthy. However.
If cells continue to divide, these extra large numbers of cells form tumors. The cells of a malignant tumor can invade and destroy adjacent tissues and organs.
Moreover, cancer cells can penetrate out of the tumor into the blood or lymphatic system. This is how the cancer travels from the primary site to other organs to form new tumors, a process called cancer metastasis, and most cancers are named according to the organ or cell type in which they start. Oral cancer: It can be understood as a malignant tumor that occurs in the oral and maxillofacial region, which is the area involved in maxillofacial surgery mentioned above. Its biological characteristics follow the pattern of malignant tumor development: early manifestations are unexplained ulcers, hyperplasia, abnormal mucosal color; pain, swallowing, impaired tongue movement, restricted mouth opening, loose teeth, bleeding, numbness and other neurological dysfunction. Among them, oral cancer of lip, gum, cheek, tongue, floor of mouth, palate and salivary gland has a 3-year survival rate of about 50-70% and a 5-year survival rate of about 40-50%. The survival rate is even lower and worse for malignant melanoma and sarcoma. Oral cancer causes direct adverse effects on patients’ lives due to its special location, as well as the mastication, swallowing, speech disorders and postoperative deformities of the jaw and face, so its treatment has attracted sufficient attention. Its treatment follows the principle of malignant tumor treatment – “early detection and early treatment”. It can be treated by surgical resection, radiotherapy, immuno-biotherapy, traditional Chinese medicine and one or more other treatment methods such as freezing and laser.