36-year-old man passes away from oral cancer

Recently, 36-year-old singer Fu Song passed away because of oral cancer. He had experienced 3 recurrences since he was found to have oral cancer, and the pain and suffering caused by oral cancer were huge as seen in the ulcerated lumps on his face that he showed to the netizens, and he finally left this world after years of suffering pain.

Oral cancer is a malignant tumor that occurs in the oral cavity. In recent decades, more and more people in China are suffering from oral diseases, and the death rate of oral cancer has increased four times, about nearly 10,000 people die from oral cancer every year.

4 main factors induce oral cancer

Oral cancer is highly prevalent among men, especially those aged 50~60 years old who belong to the high-risk group. Many risk factors induce oral cancer, mainly the following.

Poor oral hygiene

In clinical practice, most oral cancer patients have very poor oral hygiene.

If oral hygiene is not taken seriously, a large number of bacteria will easily grow in the mouth and inflammation will spread in the mouth, so the mouth will be stimulated continuously and malignant changes will occur and even develop into oral cancer.

Smoking and drinking

Cigarettes are recognized as carcinogenic substances because the process of smoking will produce many carcinogenic substances, such as common benzo(a)pyrene, which will seriously damage oral health. Some data show that people who smoke more than 20 cigarettes a day are 5 to 6 times more likely to develop oral cancer than non-smokers.

Long-term heavy drinking will also increase the risk of oral diseases because alcohol contains some strong carcinogenic solvents, which can invade the oral mucosa and cause damage under the stimulation of alcohol.

Eating habits

Some people usually like to eat while it is hot, but food that is too hot can damage the oral mucosa, and long-term damage to the mucosa may lead to oral cancer. In addition, eating barbecue and fried food often can damage oral health and increase the chance of mouth ulcers and toothache, thus affecting oral health.

If these 4 abnormalities occur in the oral cavity, be alert for oral cancer

To detect oral cancer early, besides regular oral examination, we can also judge by typical symptoms of oral cancer, if we find the following abnormal symptoms in the oral cavity, we should be alert.

Abnormal oral ulcers

Among oral diseases, oral ulcers are very common, but we should be alert to abnormal oral ulcers. Under normal circumstances, mouth ulcers are round or oval, light red, and have a distinct burning pain locally.

However, if white spots are found on the surface of the ulcer, and the surface of the white spots is rough, with hard nodules, bleeding, cracks, granular granules on the surface or raised, etc., you need to be alert to the possibility of precancerous lesions of oral cancer.

In addition, we should also be alert to oral ulcers that do not heal for a long time. Normal oral ulcers usually last less than two weeks, but if they do not heal for more than two weeks and are accompanied by oral pain and burning sensation, we should be alert to the occurrence of oral cancer.

Unexplained lumps in the oral cavity

Under normal circumstances, the surface of the mouth is smooth and free of foreign bodies. If an unexplained lump appears in the mouth, and the lump becomes hard around the mouth and has a shape like cauliflower, and when the lump keeps increasing rapidly or is exostotic, it should be alerted to be one of the early symptoms of oral cancer.

Restricted opening of mouth or painful sensation

Oral cancer will cause limited movement of the tongue, which will affect the patient's speech, chewing, and swallowing, accompanied by symptoms such as numbness of the half side of the tongue. If there is no jaw joint disease, but there is a symptom of the limited opening of the mouth, which means that the patient cannot open the mouth wide or feels pain when opening it with force, it is necessary to be alert to the possible oral cancer.

Loose teeth

Oral cancer may damage the alveolar bone and cause loose teeth or toothache, such as enlargement of the jaw bone and loose teeth.

In addition, oral cancer may also cause swollen lymph nodes in the neck because oral cancer may metastasize to the lymph nodes in the neck; when the tumor invades the nerves, it may also cause pain in the throat and ear; oral cancer may also involve the inferior alveolar nerve in the lower jaw, causing numbness on the side of the lower lip.

Why two years and five years after oral cancer surgery are a hurdle respectively?

Surgery is the most effective method to deal with oral cancer, but due to the special location, it is easy to affect the patient's swallowing, speech, and other functions after surgery, such as tongue cancer, which is common among oral cancers. Tongue cancer surgery is highly traumatic and easily changes the oral structure, which will affect the patient's eating for some time and easily lead to malnutrition.

Dr. Fan Song, a postdoctoral fellow in surgical oncology at Harvard University Massachusetts General Hospital, said that 2 years, as well as 5 years after oral cancer surgery, is a hurdle, this is because the probability of recurrence within 2 years after oral cancer surgery is higher, especially the risk of developing neck metastasis is higher, so patients within 2 years after surgery should pay special attention and should be followed up regularly after surgery. In addition, oral cancer patients who do not have recurrence after five years or five years can also be called clinically cured.

Therefore, oral cancer patients should have regular reviews and self-examination after surgery, which is very important for the prognosis of oral cancer after surgery. Self-examination is mainly to observe whether there are ulcers, swelling, and pain in the mouth and whether there are lumps in the neck, etc., and once they are found, they should seek medical treatment in time.

Regular review means regular examination, which is recommended to be done once a month in the first year after surgery; once every 2 months in the second year; once every 3 months in the third year; and once every 6 months, and CT or MRI afterward.

Since oral cancer progresses rapidly and has a poor prognosis, early detection and timely treatment are very important for oral cancer. We should pay more attention to oral health in general and go to the hospital for examination in time when abnormal symptoms are detected so as not to delay the disease.