Oral & Throat
Cancer

Oropharyngeal cancer can impact the mouth or the lining of the throat. Oral cancers tend to be present in twice as any men than women especially in sensitive areas like the lips, tongue, cheek, gums and mouth. An observational study conducted some time ago opined that even drinking hot beverages like tea or coffee at a temperature of  above 60 degrees can cause thermal cancer. Its mortality rate can be quite high because early detection or diagnosis, which would offer the best chance of recovery and survival, tends to be low.

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Causes: A variety of risk factors include tobacco (smoking, snuff, chewing tobacco), alcohol, exposure to sexually-transmitted HPV16 virus, and to a lesser extent, poor oral hygiene and poor diet.

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Symptoms: Self-examinations are a route to detection, e.g. feeling for enlarged glands (lymph nodes) on both sides of the neck including under the jaw, thickening of tissues in the mouth, chronic sore throat or hoarseness, problems while swallowing food, red or white patches in the mouth, frequent cough, voice change, ear pain and weight loss.