What is oral cancer?Oral cancer is an abnormal and uncontrolled growth of cells from the mucosa lining the oral cavity (tissue of the lips or tongue and floor of the mouth or salivary glands, the lining of the cheeks, gums and palate). Malignant cells can invade nearby organs or tissues and distant and, finally, if untreated, cause death.

Cancers of the head and neck are the sixth most common human cancers. Oral cancer constitutes 48% of these cancers and accounts for 3% of all cancers that affect the entire body.

This high mortality is due to that 85% of oral cancers are diagnosed in advanced stages, prognosis poor reason. Only 15% of cases are diagnosed early.

Approximately 90% of oral cancers are diagnosed in people over 40 years of age, and over 50% in individuals over 65 years.

Men are affected more often three to five times higher than women, although this relationship is winding down. The cause of this reduction is attributed to changes in lifestyle, mainly in the consumption of snuff and alcohol.

The type of oral cancer most common is called squamous cell carcinoma or up to 90% of oral cancers. The remaining 10% includes a variety of malignancies: melanoma, adenocarcinoma of minor salivary glands, malignant odontogenic tumors, cancer of the maxillary sinus of Langerhans cell histiocytosis, Kaposi’s sarcoma, lymphoma, leukemia, myeloma and metastasis.