On April 29, 2016, Chen faithful, the author of “White Deer Plain” and a famous writer, passed away at the age of 73 due to tongue cancer. While people mourned Chen, they were also concerned about the tongue cancer that took his life. Tongue cancer is a kind of oral cancer, how to detect oral cancer at an early stage? How can we prevent it?
Can cancer be found in the oral cavity?
Oral cancer is a common malignant tumor
Can oral cancer occur even if you don’t drink or smoke?
The exact cause of oral cancer is still unknown
Smoking, alcoholism and betel nut chewing are the risk factors that induce oral cancer, but the exact incidence factors of oral cancer are not clear. In addition, poor oral hygiene, local chronic irritation (such as sharp roots, tips, edges of teeth, unsuitable dentures, etc.) and viral infection are also related to the occurrence of oral cancer.
It is recommended to quit bad habits, not to smoke, not to drink, not to chew betel nut, and to develop good oral hygiene habits to remove local chronic irritation. Because the cause of oral cancer is unknown, there are many young people who have no corresponding hobbies and do well in oral hygiene, but also can suffer from oral cancer. Therefore, we should not only pay attention to prevention, but also not neglect early diagnosis and treatment.
Most oral cancers are located in the superficial position of the mouth, which can be perceived, seen and felt by patients. If treated in time, not only the cure rate is very high (the cure rate of early stage patients can be up to 95% or more), but also the treatment has few complications, minimal after-effects and low cost.
Is oral cancer not easy to detect?
There are five common clinical manifestations of oral cancer
1.Long-lasting ulcer: the ulcer is fixed in position and not healed for two weeks after removing trauma and other factors.
2. Gradually enlarging hyperplasia: typical one is cauliflower-shaped, and there can also be flab, bulge, hard nodes, bulge and swelling. If oral cancer has cervical lymph node metastasis, it shows as neck swelling.
3.Change of mucosal color: white, red, black or blue oral mucosal plaques or masses, often without symptoms.
4.Pain of varying degrees: generally less symptomatic than toothache, localizable and tolerable, persistent, pain may increase when eating and speaking, and not aggravated by hot or cold temperature changes.
5.Looseness of single tooth: after examination by dentist, the loose single tooth caused by periodontal disease and occlusal trauma is excluded, there will be the possibility of oral cancer.
Besides, there are also mouth opening restriction (excluding inflammation caused by wisdom teeth and temporomandibular joint disorder disease), oral bleeding (excluding caused by gingivitis and periodontal disease), lip and tongue movement disorder (such as difficulty in tongue extension, crookedness, difficulty in speaking or swallowing), and denture worn for a long time, which appears to be ill-fitting, etc., all of which may be caused by oral cancer.
Could oral ulcers for years be cancer?
Be familiar with precancerous state and be alert to cancer
Some oral cancers develop from precancerous state or precancerous lesions of oral mucosa, which commonly include white spots of mucosa, erythema, submucosal fibrosis, warty hyperplasia, lichen planus, etc. The clinical manifestations are long-term oral mucosal ulcers with oral mucosal color changes. These precancerous lesions or precancerous states are not cancerous per se, but may develop into cancer. The symptoms are mild and have existed for a long time, and the patients have adapted to them; when they go to the hospital, the doctors also tell them that they are not cancerous. Pre-cancerous lesion or pre-cancerous state, unknowingly transformed to oral cancer. By the time patients seek treatment, many of them miss the opportunity of early treatment.
Therefore, for single, limited precancerous lesions, surgical excision is recommended to eliminate future problems. For multiple and/or large precancerous lesions, close monitoring should be done in cooperation with a specialist. Some patients are so careful that they ask their family members to take pictures with digital cameras or cell phones every month and follow up dynamically by comparison, which sensitively detects early cancerous lesions and fights for the best treatment time.
Can oral cancer be treated without surgery?
Some hesitation is fatal
Any changes occurring in the oral cavity, face and neck, or changes in pre-cancerous lesions such as white spots and red spots in surveillance, it is important to consult an oral surgeon in time. Generally, dentists are able to screen common oral diseases from oral cancer. If it is oral cancer, the patient needs to be treated by an oral and maxillofacial surgeon or head and neck surgeon. The specialist will evaluate the lesion, and if oral cancer is still suspected, the patient should follow the doctor’s advice and not hesitate.
Oral cancer patients often have two kinds of hesitation during the consultation process. One is hesitation to diagnose. The diagnosis of oral cancer must rely on biopsy. As early oral cancer symptoms are mild, although someone has reminded or doctors have told that it may be cancer, many patients doubt doctors’ judgment and hear that surgery is required to make a clear diagnosis, so they hold a wait-and-see attitude. Secondly, they hesitate to treat. After the pathological diagnosis is confirmed, there are still many patients who are afraid of surgery and count on conservative treatment methods. After two hesitations, the cancer foci have become large, pain is felt, and the threat from the disease is seen before they make up their mind to receive treatment. Two hesitations, coupled with the search for doctors and waiting for beds, some of them have become fatally delayed and changed from early stage to middle and late stage.
Can I still eat and talk after oral cancer treatment?
Early treatment has little impact, but late treatment is not enough to mend the situation
Oral cancer is mainly treated by surgery, with additional post-operative radiotherapy or chemotherapy if necessary. The earlier the treatment of oral cancer, the better the effect. Take surgery as an example, oral cancer surgery mainly consists of resection of primary foci, lymph node dissection in the neck, and repair and reconstruction of defects. In early stage, as long as the primary foci are removed directly, it does not affect eating and speaking at all.
There is no need to be discouraged if early treatment is missed. Surgical treatment is usually coupled with cervical lymphatic dissection, and additional radiotherapy is required when the surgically removed cervical lymphatic tissue is confirmed to be invaded by cancer cells by pathological analysis. In addition, the size of the primary focus, the assessment of the safe scope of surgical resection, and the thickness of the cancer focus are also factors to consider for postoperative adjuvant radiotherapy.
If there has been hesitation and delay for a long time, at this time, it is important to make a painful decision and seek whether there is a last chance. In recent decades, promising advances have been made in restorative and reconstructive techniques. The success rate of vascularized free tissue flap transplantation in our maxillofacial surgery is over 98%; even after surgery for oral cancer with a long disease period and a large cancerous lesion, there is still hope to restore a more satisfactory appearance and preserve better functions such as eating, swallowing and chewing.