Community
19 April, 2023
Alarming oral cancer research
A STUDY by a Cairns professor analysing 36 years of cancer data has revealed a rising incidence and a worsening death rate for oral cancer in Queensland.
James Cook University’s head of dentistry Peter Thomson was part of a team that examined data for oral squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) cases diagnosed between 1982 and 2018 in Queensland, covering almost 9900 patients.
The professor of oral and maxillofacial sciences said SCC was a lethal and deforming disease of rising incidence.
“Although this cancer is largely preventable by eliminating risky tobacco and alcohol behaviour, five-year survival rates remain around 50 per cent, primarily due to the late diagnosis of advanced-stage disease,” he said.
The study found the mean age at diagnosis was 64.55 years and that over the 36-year study period the number of diagnoses increased 4.49-fold, while the number of deaths increased 19.14-fold.
“It’s notable that 59 per cent of the people in the dataset were deceased. That’s alarming, even though precise cause of death was not always available,” said Prof. Thomson.
He said low socio-economic status, regional and remote location and Indigenous status were associated with head and neck cancer in general.
