Oral Cancer Flashcards
Name some risk factors for Oral cancer
- Tobacco use
- Alcohol use
- UV radiation (mostly for lips – the sun is on the lips the most)
- Viruses (hypopharyngeal cancer, HIV, HPV)
- Chronic irritation
- Heredity
- Syphilis
What are 4 common clinical signs of oral cancer?
- Ulceration
- Erythroplakia (red patch, red plaque)
- Infuriated growth (hard mass)
- Leukoplakia (white plaque/lesion)
Patient comes in with erythroplakia and leukoplakia on the floor of the mouth – what should you be wary of?
erythroplakia and leukoplakia on the floor of the mouth is indicative of pre-malignancy/malignancy
What is the dental professional’s most important role in terms of oral cancer? (Common basic fact)
Early detection
What is the prognosis of oral cancer based on?
The stage of the cancer at
the time of detection/initial diagnosis.
What is the TNM system?
T = tumor - size of tumor N = nodes - status of cervical lymph nodes M = metastasis - the presence or absence of cancer in other sites
Where does the lymph of the lip and the anterior of the jaw drain?
Submental node
Where does the lymph of the teeth and anterior tongue drain to?
Submandibular node
Where does the lymph of the posterior tongue drain to?
Cervical nodes
Where does the lymph of the posterior skin drain to?
The occipital node
What is special about the supraclavicular node?
Supraclavicular node lesions can be from anywhere such as lung cancer, breast cancer, or oral cancer.
Thus, if you find a supraclavicular node, it is not a good prognostic sign
Where are the most common metastatic targets of oral cancer?
- Lungs!
- Brain
- Liver
- Kidney
Name the different stages of cancer
Stage I - T1N0M0
Stage II - T2N0M0
Stage III - T3N0M0, T(1,2,3)N1M0
Stage IV - T4N(0,1)M0
T(0-4),N2,M0
T(0-4), N3,M0
T(0-4), N(0-4), M1
How should you begin diagnosis of cancer?
- Biopsy
- Diagnosis
- Staging
- CT Scans: Neck, Chest, Abdomen
- Liver function tests
- PET Scan - nuclear medicine scan, material goes into rapidly dividing cells and the patient gets scanned
- =]
What is the different between Incisional biopsy vs. Excisional biopsy
Incisional - take out part
- large lesions
- want to take only part to make sure of what it really is (don’t for unknown lesions)
Excisional - take out whole
- little lesions
- known lesions
What are different types of biopsy techniques?
Brush biopsy - brush the lesion and see organisms under microscope
Fine needle aspiration - cells sucked out and looked under microscope
Light enchanted examination - illuminates differently for malignant cells
Toluidine blue - cells taken up more actively by rapidly dividing cells, but not used anymore
What are the 3 different treatment modalities for oral cancer? What is the oral cancer team made of?
- Surgery
- Radiation
- Chemotherapy (chemo is usually only an adjunct – given before or after radiation, chemo alone is not curative)
* **chemo is curative for lymphomas
* **chemo is used to shrink tumor to make it more amenable to surgical process
Head and neck cancer team
- Head and neck cancer surgery
- Radiation oncologist
- Medical hematology oncology person