Oral Cancer Awareness Month - April 2025
April is Oral Cancer Awareness month, and this year we are highlighting some facts, research, and resources about oral cancer. Oral cancer is a catch-all term for any and all cancers of the oral cavity, which includes lips and tongue, teeth and gums, the lining inside the lips and cheeks, and the roof and floor of the mouth. Oral cancer, like any cancer, can spread. The most common place oral cancer spreads to is the lymph nodes.
Did you know that:
- Approximately 5000 Canadians are diagnosed with oral cancer each year
- The incidence of oral cancer is almost 3 times higher than for cervical cancer
- Smoking, heavy alcohol consumption, HPV infection, a diet low in fruits and vegetables, and poor oral health are all risk factors for oral cancer
Find more general information about oral cancer here:
The Ontario Dental Association
Researchers here at U of T have studied oral cancer, including oral cancer knowledge and screening practices in the study "Oral cancer screening knowledge and practices among dental professionals at the University of Toronto." In this study, researchers found that:
- 70% of dentists felt confident in their knowledge of oral cancer
- 56% of dentists correctly identified the most common presentation of oral cancer
- 41% of dentists reported lack of time as a barrier to oral cancer screening
It's important for both patients and dental professionals to be knowledgeable about and aware of oral cancer!
Below we have compiled some scholarly resources about oral cancer.
Books:
Bioinformatics for Oral Cancer: Current Insights and Advances / edited by Mahesh KP, Raghavendra Amachawadi, Shiva Prasad Kollur, Chandan Shivamallu
Textbook of Oral Cancer: Prevention, Diagnosis and Management / edited by Saman Warnakulasuriya, John S. Greenspan
Artificial Intelligence in Oral Health / edited by Jae-Hong Lee
Nanotechnology in cancer management: precise diagnostics toward personalized health care / Kamil Reza Khondakar, Ajeet Kumar Kaushik
Oral Microbiome: Hygiene and Health / edited by Rajesh Kumar, Shamsher S. Kanwar
You can find many more in the U of T library catalogue. Here are the U of T libraries search results for books from the last 5 years about oral cancer.
Select articles by U of T Dentistry faculty members:
Effects of Ionizing Radiation on the Biophysical Properties of Type I Collagen Fibrils / Kester Ng, Nader Allam, Mehrnoosh Neshatian, Mina Vaez, Liisa M Hirvonen, Ernest Lam, Alex Vitkin, Laurent Bozec
Dental Management of Patients Undergoing Head and Neck Cancer Treatment / Syed Salim Abdul-Wasay, Aviv Ouanounou
Risk of Malignant Transformation of Oral Lichen Planus and Oral Lichenoid Lesions: A Single Centre, 10-Year Review / Kelsey V Won, Karl K Cuddy, Deepika Chugh, Marco Magalhaes
Chronotherapy in head and neck cancer: A systematic review and meta-analysis / Mohammad Abusamak, Abdel-Azez Abu-Samak, Wenji Cai, Haider Al-Waeli, Faez Saleh Al-Hamed, Mohammad Al-Tamimi, Malik Juweid, Akhilanand Chaurasia, Belinda Nicolau, Faleh Tamimi
Head and Neck Cancer in Pan-American Notable People: An International Survey / Josefina Martínez-Ramírez, Cristina Saldivia-Siracusa, Maria Eduarda Pérez-de-Oliveira, Ana Gabriela Costa Normando, Luiz Paulo Kowalski, Maria Paula Curado, Lady Paola Aristizabal Arboleda, Ana Carolina Prado-Ribeiro, Leonor-Victoria González-Pérez, Gisele Aparecida Fernandes, Florence Juana Maria Cuadra-Zelaya, Pablo Agustin Vargas, Marcio Ajudarte Lopes, Marco A O Magalhaes, Vidya Sankar, Alessandro Villa, Alan Roger Santos-Silva
Computed tomography radiomics-based cross-sectional detection of mandibular osteoradionecrosis in head and neck cancer survivors / MD Anderson Head and Neck Cancer Symptom Working Group; Serageldin Kamel, Laia Humbert-Vidan, Zaphanlene Kaffey, Abdulrahman Abusaif, David T A Fuentes, Kareem Wahid, Cem Dede, Mohamed A Naser, Renjie He, Ahmed W Moawad, Khaled M Elsayes, Melissa M Chen, Adegbenga O Otun, Jillian Rigert, Mark Chambers, Andrew Hope, Erin Watson, Kristy K Brock, Katherine Hutcheson, Lisanne van Dijk, Amy C Moreno, Stephen Y Lai, Clifton D Fuller, Abdallah S R Mohamed
Prognosing post-treatment outcomes of head and neck cancer using structured data and machine learning: A systematic review / Mohammad Moharrami, Parnia Azimian Zavareh, Erin Watson, Sonica Singhal, Alistair E W Johnson, Ali Hosni, Carlos Quinonez, Michael Glogauer
Development and Standardization of an Osteoradionecrosis Classification System in Head and Neck Cancer: Implementation of a Risk-Based Model / Erin E Watson, Katrina Hueniken, Junhyung Lee, Shao Hui Huang, Amr El Maghrabi, Wei Xu, Amy C Moreno, C Jillian Tsai, Ezra Hahn, Andrew J McPartlin, Christopher M K L Yao, David P Goldstein, John R De Almeida, John N Waldon, Clifton D Fuller, Andrew J Hope, Salvatore L Ruggiero, Michael Glogauer, Ali A Hosni
Prevention and Management of Osteoradionecrosis in Patients With Head and Neck Cancer Treated With Radiation Therapy: ISOO-MASCC-ASCO Guideline / Douglas E Peterson, Shlomo A Koyfman, Noam Yarom, Charlotte Duch Lynggaard, Nofisat Ismaila, Lone E Forner, Clifton David Fuller, Yvonne M Mowery, Barbara A Murphy, Erin Watson, David H Yang, Ivan Alajbeg, Paolo Bossi, Michael Fritz, Neal D Futran, Daphna Y Gelblum, Edward King, Salvatore Ruggiero, Derek K Smith, Alessandro Villa, Jonn S Wu, Deborah Saunders
Prevention and Management of Osteoradionecrosis in Patients With Head and Neck Cancer Treated With Radiation Therapy: ISOO-MASCC-ASCO Guideline Clinical Insights / Deborah Saunders, Shlomo A Koyfman, Nofisat Ismaila, Neal D Futran, Yvonne M Mowery, Erin Watson, David H Yang, Douglas E Peterson
International Expert-Based Consensus Definition, Staging Criteria, and Minimum Data Elements for Osteoradionecrosis of the Jaw: An Inter-Disciplinary Modified Delphi Study / International ORAL Consortium
Oral Granular Cell Tumors: An Analysis of the Clinical and Histopathologic Features of 126 Tumors / Justin Bubola, Marco Magalhaes, Iona Leong, Deepika Chugh, Grace Bradley
Select other articles:
Epidemiology and Patient Distribution of Oral Cavity and Oropharyngeal SCC in Canada / Feras M. Ghazawi, Jessica Lu, Evgeny Savin, Andrei Zubarev, Peter Chauvin, Denis Sasseville, Anthony Zeitouni, Ivan V. Litvinov
A population-based study of factors associated with early versus late stage oral cavity cancer diagnoses / Patti A. Groome, Susan L. Rohland, Stephen F. Hall, Jon Irish, William J. Mackillop, Brian O’Sullivan
Screening programmes for the early detection and prevention of oral cancer / Paul Brocklehurst, Omar Kujan, Lucy O'Malley, Graham R Ogden, Simon Shepherd, Anne-Marie Glenny
Detection of oral cancer and oral potentially malignant disorders using artificial intelligence‐based image analysis / Atsumu Kouketsu, Chiaki Doi, Hiroaki Tanaka, Takashi Araki, Rina Nakayama, Tsuguyoshi Toyooka, Satoshi Hiyama, Masahiro Iikubo, Ken Osaka, Keiichi Sasaki, Hirokazu Nagai, Tsuyoshi Sugiura, Kensuke Yamauchi, Kanako Kuroda, Yuta Yanagisawa, Hitoshi Miyashita, Tomonari Kajita, Ryosuke Iwama, Tsuyoshi Kurobane, Tetsu Takahashi
Precursor Lesions, Overdiagnosis, and Oral Cancer: A Critical Review / Nicola Cirillo