Oral Cancer: From Prevention to Intervention

Abstract

This is a concise, informed and practical manual detailing the cause, prevention and interventional treatment of oral cancer – the deadliest of oral diseases. In the 21st century, oral cancer remains a lethal and deforming disease exhibiting rising incidence of epidemic proportions, particularly in younger patients, and is of global significance with over 300,000 new cases presenting each year. Despite advances in diagnosis and management, half of all patients die within five years. Even following successful initial treatment, long-term prognosis is compromised by the presentation of advanced tumours and development of widespread, multi-focal disease throughout the mouth and upper aero-digestive tract. The transformation of normal mouth lining into ‘potentially malignant’ and subsequently malignant tissue is a complex, multistep and multifactorial process in which accumulated genetic alterations, often instigated by overuse of tobacco and alcohol, disrupt the normal functioning of oral epithelial cells. Unfortunately, there is considerable public ignorance regarding oral cancer, and it is imperative for disease prevention to raise awareness of the causes and symptoms of the disease, especially in those populations most ‘at-risk’ of cancer. This book provides pragmatic strategies to improve both prevention and treatment intervention. Spanning nearly 40 years of clinical investigation, it reviews the biological basis of oral cancer, outlines primary, secondary and tertiary preventive strategies and describe a pragmatic treatment intervention protocol that specifically utilizes the ‘potentially malignant window’ to identify malignant disease at the earliest possible stage and intervention to ‘stop the oral cancer clock’ and halt the progression of this deadliest of oral diseases.