Screening for Oral Cavity Cancer: A 1-year Experience of a Regional Hospital in Taiwan

Introduction: The purpose of this study was to analyze the risk factors affecting precancerous lesions, and cancer of oral cavity, and to assess efficacy of visual screening for oral mucosal lesions. Methods: The medical records of patients older than 30 years of age with history of habitual cigarette smoking or betel quid chewing that received screening for oral mucosal lesions between January 2012 and December 2012 were retrospectively reviewed. The patients' age, gender, risk factors, screening findings, and histopathology results of biopsy were included for further analysis. Results: A total of 1341 patients were enrolled in this study. There were 1080 males and 261 females ranging from 30 to 96 years of age, with a mean age of 53.9±13.6 years. After screening, 226 (16.9%) were found to be positive of oral lesions. Among these 226 patients, 69 (30.5%) underwent biopsy under local anesthesia, and the histopathology showed malignancy in 13 (5.8%). All of the confirmed malignant cases were squamous cell carcinoma. Among them, 12 received further staging examination and one was lost to follow-up resulting in unknown stage. The early stage oral cavity cancer (stage I and II) accounted for 84.6% (11/13). Conclusions: The detection rate of early stage oral cavity cancer in our study was reasonable. Therefore, visual screening for oral cavity cancer is recommended for patients with habitual cigarette smoking or betel quid chewing. Keywords: betel quid chewing; cigarette smoking; oral cavity cancer; screening.