Oral cancer preventive campaigns: are we reaching the real target?

Abstract

The population that seeks preventive campaigns is not the main risk group for the disease. This fact explains the low number of lesions and the lack of cancer detection.

Oral diseases diagnosis rate during an oral cancer prevention campaign in Fernandópolis, Brazil, 2014

“…On the other hand, Martins et al [16], reported data of 9 years of oral cancer prevention by clinical screening and population education which shows these campaigns were effective and reached benefits for the oral health of elderly population, showing a reduction on the rate of oral cancer diagnosis among each 100,000 patients examined from 20.89 to 11.12. Based on the information that OSCC is one of the most commons types of cancer, the extremely low rate of OSCC found in our study suggests, agreeing with Nemoto et al [17], this campaign did not reach patients at real risk for the development of this disease, therefore, the need for review on campaign methodologies is clear, especially regarding campaign dissemination.…”

“…Nevertheless, in most of cases, oral cancer is diagnosed on advanced stages, and, for this reason, oral cancer represents a public health problem worldwide, requiring attitudes aiming to raise awareness regarding the importance of early diagnosing and preventing this disease among general population and oral health caregivers, since, apparently oral cancer is preventable, being, nowadays, clearly associated to harmful habits such as abusive tobacco smoking and alcohol drinking [2,17,28].…”

“…Furthermore, this campaign aimed to educate population regarding the importance of preventing and early diagnosing oral cancer. OSCC is a potentially preventable malignant disease, being associated to harmful habits, which, if avoided, OSCC development chances might decrease [17,28] therefore, the importance of performing campaigns like this is to disseminate information regarding oral cancer among general population, once knowing the disease and etiologic factors associated to oral cancer, as much as the importance of early detecting this disease, preventive work becomes easier and more effective [24,26].…”

“…During the campaign, only 1 (0.09%), of the total of examined patients (1.003), was diagnosed with oral cancer (OSCC); this low rate of OSCC diagnosis during the campaign might be attributed to two factors; Nemoto et al [17], attributed the low diagnosis rate of oral cancer during oral cancer preventing campaigns to the fact that campaigns like this does not reach patients at risk for oral cancer development, and commented although campaigns are well structured and reaches a large number of people, other forms of prevention should be developed in order to reach the real risk group for this disease. Nevertheless, further groups over the world have performed oral cancer prevention campaigns with different methodologies, using media resources, however, in the study published by Saleh et al [23], authors reported results of an oral cancer prevention campaign by mass media approach did not appear to improve the ability of respondents to recognize the signs of oral cancer or retain the information obtained from media, and commented campaign strategies needs to be re-assessed for comprehension, acceptability and potential effectiveness.…”

Produtividade Científica Acerca Da Neoplasia Maligna Bucal E Da Reabilitação Bucal: Uma Análise Bibliométrica

“…Essa doença ocupa, no biênio 2016/2017, o 5° lugar na lista de incidência entre a população masculina brasileira, com aproximadamente 11.390 novos casos, e, entre as mulheres, a décima segunda colocação com 4.350 novos casos (2) . Em muitos países, assim como no Brasil, os pacientes têm diagnóstico estabelecido na fase avançada ou metastática da doença, o que, somado à agressividade própria do tumor, dificulta o tratamento e piora significativamente o prognóstico (3) . O tratamento para esses pacientes habitualmente pode incluir a cirurgia, a radioterapia, a quimioterapia ou a combinação destes.…”