▲National Health Administration provides free oral mucosal examination once every two years for people over 30 years old who have chewed betel nuts or smoked. People can make more use of it.

(Photo courtesy/Huang Junqi)

Text / Huang Junqi

Recently, two patients had persistent hard lumps in their mouths for several months. They delayed seeking medical treatment due to the epidemic situation. They did not go to the outpatient clinic until the epidemic situation eased recently. They were all diagnosed with oral cancer by biopsy. One was stage 1. Oral cancer, and the other one was stage 2 oral cancer. Fortunately, both of them recovered well after surgical resection.

Early oral cancer has no obvious symptoms. The most common symptom is a hard lump in the mouth that has not healed for a long time, especially in patients who smoke, drink or chew betel nuts. Most of them occur in men over 40 years old, and recently In recent years, there is a trend of getting younger and younger.

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The cure rate of very small stage 1 oral cancer after surgical resection usually exceeds 90%. If you quit smoking, alcohol and betel nut at the same time, the cure rate can even approach 100%. When the disease is getting bigger and bigger, and there is cervical lymph node metastasis at the same time, the cure rate is getting lower and lower, and sometimes even chemotherapy and radiation therapy must be combined.

The main treatment modalities for oral cancer include: surgical resection, chemotherapy and radiation therapy.

Among them, surgical resection mainly depends on the individual skills, physical strength and patience of the otolaryngologist. The success rate has nothing to do with the advanced medical equipment. As for the part of chemotherapy and radiation therapy, the drugs and machines used in each hospital are also different Are the same.

In addition to surgery and postoperative recovery, chemotherapy and radiation therapy, after the course of treatment is over, continuous follow-up is still required in the outpatient clinic.

Therefore, when choosing a hospital for treatment, we usually recommend that patients undergo a complete course of treatment in the same hospital, so that the attending physician can have a better grasp of the diagnosis and treatment situation.

Over 30 years old 1 free check-up every 2 years

Patients with oral cancer are usually the main source of income for their families. If diagnosed and treated at an early stage, it will usually not affect daily life and work.

Now the National Health Administration provides free oral mucosal examinations once every two years for people over the age of 30 who have chewed betel nuts or smoked. People can make more use of it.

(The author is a physician in the Department of Otorhinolaryngology and Head and Neck Oncology, Luodong Bo'ai Hospital)

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• mouth

• smoking

• Oral Cancer

• betel nut

• health care

• lump

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