Throat cancer: symptoms, risks and management

With rates of mouth and throat cancer rising, the General Dental Council last May said that ‘Oral Cancer: Improving Early Detection’ was to be included as a ‘recommended’ subject for continuing professional development (CPD). This can be completed as verifiable or non-verifiable CPD.

Cancer is a disease of the cells that make up the organs and tissues of the body (Macmillan, 2012a). Normal cells change and grow out of control, forming a mass of cells called a tumour. A tumour can be benign (noncancerous) or malignant (cancerous).

‘Cancer is the term applied to malignant tumours and is essentially a genetic disease caused by somatic mutation. The multistage theory of carcinogenesis suggests that individual cancers arise from several sequential mutations in cellular DNA. There is a close correlation between cancer incidence and increased age, reflecting the time required to accumulate the critical number of genetic abnormalities needed for malignant change’ (Thomson et al. 2010).