Oral cancer: Premalignant conditions and screening--an update.
Oral cancers form a significant portion of the cancer burden seen in our country. Typically, they tend to be preceded by a premalignant state for a long time. This article discusses the various types of premalignant disorders commonly seen in daily practice. Also, it is important to screen patients for these conditions so as to detect malignant changes early. Previously, the screening of patients for oral cancer and precancerous lesions has relied mainly on conventional oral examination. Nowadays, many newer techniques are available to potentially assist in the screening of healthy patients for evidence of oral cancer. This article attempts to review the current literature for screening methods and adjuncts such as toluidine blue, brush cytology, tissue chemiluminescence and autofluorescence.
Department of Head and Neck Surgical Oncology, Tata Memorial Centre, Dr Ernest Borges Marg, Parel, Mumbai 400 012, India. drdeepanair@hotmail.com
Deepa R
DR
Nair
Ritesh
R
Pruthy
Uday
U
Pawar
Pankaj
P
Chaturvedi
D055088:Early Detection of Cancer / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D009062:Mouth Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D011230:Precancerous Conditions / Q000175:diagnosis*