About 30,000 Americans every year are diagnosed to have mouth cancer This is according to the American Cancer Society. What’s sad about this is that 50% of these patients succumb to this illness in five years. This doesn’t have to happen if early detection can be made. Mouth cancer is treatable if discovered in the early stage.
Through a new computerized mouth-screening tool, early detection is enhanced. A study was conducted across the US. This study had 945 participants with ages ranging from 18 to 83. Brush biopsy specimens were extracted from lesions in the mouth to test the accuracy of the computerized diagnostic equipment. Anesthesia was not necessary for the brush biopsy. It caused very little or no pain at all. It didn’t even cause bleeding.
The diagnostic equipment was able to accurately identify cancerous and pre-cancerous lesions. They compared the result from the computerized diagnostic equipment and the traditional tissue evaluations. It was also able to detect lesions that seemed benign but were actually cancerous or had the potential to be cancerous. Without this new diagnostic equipment, the lesions would go undetected and more will be added to the growing statistics of mouth cancer patients
According to Dr. James J. Sciubba, DMD, PhD, professor of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology at State University of New York at Stony Brook and spokesperson for the study, “Early evaluation of oral pre-cancerous lesions can have a dramatic impact on oral cancer mortality rates.”
This new diagnostic scanner empowers dentists to detect mouth cancer as early as possible. About 8,100 people are expected to die of mouth cancer this year. This new innovation has proven to be a very helpful weapon and brings hope as the fight against oral cancer continues.
