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Free Oral Cancer Screening

Regular oral checkups and soft tissue screening could help to identify oral changes leading to cancers and other systemic illnesses. Even a discolouration can be identified earlier could save a person’s life. Free Oral Cancer screening encourages oral checkups for prevention and early detection.

Why this Free Oral Cancer Screening project?

Since Time factor, as well as financial insecurity, restricts them from seeking preventive measures, it would be an ideal support for the families to come up with an early screening of various disease conditions of the human body.
Historically the primary risk factors for oral cancer included tobacco use, frequent and/or excessive alcohol consumption, a compromised immune system.  And past history of cancer, with a high percentage of victims being males over the age of 40.

Objectives

• Diagnose oral mucosal changes at the earliest and reduce the Oral cancer incidents among the public in Kerala.
• Also, ensure that all patients are screened at least annually
• To supplement that conventional exam with an exam using an effective adjunctive screening device.

Benefits of Early Detection

According to the SEER database:

• Found early, oral cancer’s five-year survival rate is 80% to 85%.
• Found late, oral cancer’s five-year survival rate is only about 50%.

Oral Squamous Cell Carcinomas (OSCC)

In short, OSCC make up over 90% of all oral cancers:

• Because of its appearance, OSCC is difficult to differentiate from the other relatively benign lesions of the oral cavity.
• Early OSCC and potentially malignant lesions can appear as a white patch (leukoplakia), or as a reddened area (erythroplakia),
• These cellular changes are often non-detectable to the human eye (even with magnification eyewear) under standard lighting conditions.
• Often, when the lesion becomes visible, it has advanced to invasive stages.
  the survival rate is 80%-to-85%

The HPV Connection

In recent years, younger males, as well as females, have accounted for an increasing percentage of oral cancer victims.

One type of HPV — the HPV-16 strain — is the leading cause of oropharyngeal cancer, the fastest-growing type of head and neck cancer. HPV is also the leading cause of cervical cancer, and it can cause vaginal, penile and vulvar cancer as well as genital warts.
About 20 million Americans currently have an HPV infection. According to the CDC, an estimated:

• 7,080 men and 14,720 women develop cancers associated with HPV types 16 and 18 every year
• HPV-related disease costs an estimated $8 billion annually.

Method of Implementation:

A Simple Process for the Visualization of Oral Abnormalities

An Enhanced Oral Assessment System, which centers on a wireless, handheld scope that uses natural tissue fluorescence visualization to help clinicians see oral mucosal abnormalities that might otherwise have been overlooked.

Upon Discovering an Abnormality:

The following steps will provide the best course of action for patients:

• First, attempt to determine its cause based on all of the clinical information acquired during the oral assessment process;
• after addressing the presumed cause, schedule a follow-up visit with the patient in 2-3 weeks to see if the abnormality has resolved;
• Moreover, Persistent oral lesions require further assessment that normally includes biopsy or referral