Oral cancer kills someone every hour. It is one of the 6th leading cancers in men, infects more than 30,000 Americans each year, and there are 640,000 new cases, every year, worldwide. The median age for diagnosis of oral cancer is 62 years old. Oral cancer infects the mouth, lips, or the back of the throat. In America 100 individuals are diagnosed with oral cancer every day, and in 2010 alone 37,000 people had oral cancer. Of that number 7,880 are dead. A person might have oral cancer if they have one of the following symptoms: white patches in one’s mouth, or bleeding in the mouth; a sore on the lip, difficulty and pain when swallowing or wearing dentures; a lump in the neck, an earache that doesn’t go away, or numbness of the chin and lower lip. Fortunately, if you have one of these symptoms it’s not likely that you have oral cancer.
The biggest risk factor for oral cancer is tobacco use. Smoking cigarettes, pipes, cigars, or doing dip and other non-smoking forms of tobacco all result in the same thing: oral cancer. The history of oral cancer is tied very closely to the history of smoking. People smoked a lot in the 40’s and 50’s, which leads to the conclusion that oral cancer was very common during those times. The 60’s were the same as the 40’s, but after the 60’s smoking went down. The amount of new cases and deaths for oral cancer has been going down since 1970, but over the last five years the rate has gone up. In 2007 the amount of people diagnosed with oral cancer went up 11% from the year before.
Other risks are heavy alcohol use, which combined with smoking, makes a person more susceptible to getting oral cancer. Being exposed to fake, or real sun for too long. The sun causes lip cancer, and the likelihood of getting oral cancer from the sun is greater if the person also smokes. If someone had a type of oral cancer, it is very likely that another type will form. Ten to forty percent of people who have been cured of oral cancer will develop another type of cancer later on in life. Being a male is also a risk for getting oral cancer. Males get oral cancer more than twice as much as females do. Less than 5% of people are diagnosed with oral cancer from an unknown source. The, “unknown source,” could be due to genetics, but scientists aren’t sure because it’s such an uncommon occurrence.
Over the past 25 years Human Papilloma Virus has been attributed to oropharyngeal cancer, which infects the mouth and throat. HPV is transferred by sexual contact, and the cancerous cells are found in the base of the tongue, the back of throat, the tonsils, and the soft palate. Those whose cancer stems from HPV have a higher survival rate than those whose cancer stems from tobacco or alcohol use. Virally caused disease is molecularly different, and people who get cancer from HPV tend to be younger and healthier. When the patients are younger their bodies are stronger, so they have a better chance of fighting off the disease. Also, doctors can give a smaller dose of treatment to the patients, which reduces long-term damage. DNA in the infected cancer cells is less damaged than cells destroyed by alcohol and tobacco.
The main type of oral cancer comes from squamous cell carcinomas. Oropharyngeal cancers are usually squamous cell carcinomas, but not always. Squamous cell carcinomas develop in the mouth in white patches that don’t rub off; the cells spread very quickly. Squamous begins in the flat cells that cover the surface of the mouth, tongue, and lips. Squamos can be a benign tumor on the tongue. However, once the cells break away from the original tumor, and enter the blood stream and lymph vessels, the tumor becomes malignant. The cells spread deep into the tissue as the cancer grows; they attach to different tissues, grow and form tumors, and damage the tissue. Squamous cell carcinomas affect the oral cavity, which is the front of the tongue, gums, the lining of the cheek, under the tongue, on the roof of the mouth, and behind the wisdom teeth. The nicotine and tar in tobacco products change the cell, and causes it to lose heterozygosity at places where tumor suppressor genes are supposed to be. Heterozygosity is an individual organism that has two alleles, which are alternative forms of a gene that rise by mutation, that lead to varying offspring. There are multiple copies of the DNA sequence of oncogenes.
There are four different types of treatment for oral cancer, but early detection is the key to survival. If oral cancer is found early enough 90% of the people diagnosed will survive for more than five years. Unfortunately, the cancer spreads so quickly that it isn’t found until it’s in the throat or neck, and people die less than five years after diagnosis. The type of treatment one is given depends on where the caner began, and how far it’s spread. Surgery can be used to remove a tumor, remove the lymph nodes, or damaged tissue. Removing a small tumor isn’t as harmful to people in the long run as removing a large tumor. If a large tumor is removed the jaw, tongue, or palate might also have to be removed, which leads to difficulty when eating, swallowing, talking, and changes how you look.
Radiation therapy uses high-energy rays to kill the cancerous cells. It is used before surgery to make a tumor smaller, or used to destroy cancer cells in the area of the tumor. For oral cancer, external radiation therapy is used because it finds the tumor more closely, and kills less healthy tissue. There are a lot of unfortunate side-affects to radiation therapy, such as: ulcers and inflammation in the mouth and throat, dry mouth, which makes it hard to eat and swallow, infection, bleeding gums, dental problems, and it can change the tissues in the mouth.
Chemotherapy is a drug injected into the veins to kill the cancerous cells. Unfortunately, chemotherapy can also kill healthy cells when looking for the cancerous ones. Targeted therapy uses a type of drug, cetuximab, which binds to the cancerous cells and stops them from spreading and growing. Each type of treatment can be used with the others; surgery can be used with radiation therapy, chemotherapy can be used with radiation therapy, or targeted therapy can be used with chemotherapy and radiation therapy. Chemotherapy and radiation therapy are commonly used once the cancer has spread to the lymph nodes.
Oral cancer is not a cancer one hears about a lot. However, it is important to know about oral cancer because it does take thousands of lives each year. Oral cancer is an unnecessary cancer that is easily prevented. Being aware of what smoking does, and how it puts you at a high risk of oral cancer, is key to the end of most cases of oral cancer. The diagnosis of oral cancer, and death from it, can be stopped. People can be saved. We need to be aware and learn about oral cancer, stop smoking; and soon enough oral cancer will no longer be a common occurrence.
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Another system I remember is how the heart works. The heart has two main arteries, which pump oxygenated and deoxygenated blood to their specific places in the body. Deoxygenated blood enters (I think) the left artery and is pumped through to the lungs to be oxygenated. Oxygenated blood is pumped through the right artery and is circulated through the body. There are more parts in each artery, but I can't remember what they are. The heart is the most important muscle in our body, it keeps us alive and moving. It circulates blood that comes in from our lungs all over our body. The lungs are another important part of our bodies. We suck in air through our mouth or nose, it goes through a tube that is behind the tube that brings food to the stomach, and hits the alveoli in the lungs, which send it through to the blood behind waiting to be oxygenated.
