Oral Cancer Detected Late Despite Preventive Programmes

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 17 (Bernama) -- Even though many countries have preventive programmes for early detection and down staging of oral cancer, the disease is still being detected at stage three and four, which is considered as a very late stage, a senior researcher said.
"This is because oral cancer is a major problem in the majority of Asia Pacific countries and the cost to bring out the preventive measures and conducting research are still an obstacle that limit the method to detect it earlier," said the Director of Oral Cancer Research and Coordinating Centre (OCRCC) Universiti Malaya (UM) Prof Dr Rosnah Mohamed Zain.
She told Bernama after the launching of the International Conference on Oral Cancer in The Asia Pacific: A Regional Update and Networking at the Faculty of Dentistry, UM here today.
At least 70 representatives from 18 Asia Pacific countries attended the three-day conference beginning today and would be held until Sunday.
She said many researches were mainly done in the developed nations with few concentrating on the developing countries but some had also been using materials from the developing countries as part of a collaborative research.
"This is where efforts on international networking to conduct research and find a prevention method with limited sources of cost are important where such collaboration would enhance and train the oral surgeons, clinicians and scientists in concerns of oral cancer that would be useful to prevent the disease," she said.
Dr Rosnah said in many countries, risk factors for the Asian region might be similar and yet cancer incidence differed possibly due to the varied composition, method of usage and the dosages of the risk habits such as smoking, and betel quid chewing.
"Other than the habitual risk factors, the genetic susceptibility and other inherent genetic factors may further influence the oral cancer development," she said.
Meanwhile, Dr R.Sankaranarayanan from Regional Cancer Centre, Trivandrum, India, Dr R. Sankaranarayanan in his paper entitled "Oral Cancer Screening" said primary prevention of tobacco and alcohol control, and early detection were important control measures.
He said it was crucial as the disease is the eleventh most common cancer in the world and eighth most common in the developing world with 274,000 new cases and 146,000 deaths occurring annually around the world in the year 2002, of which two-thirds were observed in developing countries.
Director of Oral Health Division, Ministry of Health, Datuk Dr Wan Mohamad Nasir Wan Othman, who also presented a paper, said the National Cancer Registry (NCR) data in 2003 reported that the incidence of oral cancer in Malaysia was 5.2 per cent of 100,000 population and ranked 12th and 13th as compared to other types of cancer.
He said screening and early detection should be continuously done to the high risk communities as well as the involvement of other health care providers and further efforts were needed to extend the screening programme.