What a breakthrough! Tata Memorial docs find a new way to increase lifespan of oral cancer patients

Cancer is defined as the uncontrollable growth of cells that invade and cause damage to surrounding tissue. Oral cancer, which includes cancers of the lips, tongue, cheeks, floor of the mouth, hard and soft palate, sinuses, and pharynx (throat), can be life threatening if not diagnosed and treated early.

At a press conference held at Tata Memorial Hospital in Mumbai, doctors have come up with a new breakthrough that could cut down the risk of death for oral cancer patients by 36%. Besides, this latest technique would also prevent recurrence of the disease by 55%. This was revealed in a Times of India report.

Now, if you are wondering what the innovation is all about? Well, the news daily reveals that it’s an 'extra cut' - a dissection in medical parlance - along the neck to detect if the patient's cancer had spread from his/her oral cavity to the neck. The cut would be a prophylaxis - a preventive medicine - against aggressive cancer forms and prevent the need for chemotherapy or radiation.

"When a patient comes with a lesion in his oral cavity, be it his\her tongue or jaw bone, it's not possible to say whether the cancer has progressed beyond to the neck region. This is especially in the early stages of oral cancer,'' said Dr Pankaj Chaturvedi, one of the other investigators.

Currently, patients may choose to not undergo neck dissection and wait until some cancerous bulge - basically, a recurrence - appears in his/her neck. Since a long time, the issue of whether or not early stage oral cancer patients should undergo a neck dissection remained debatable.

According to the TOI report, “On one hand, the dissection is a delicate operation because the cut is made near important nerves (for facial expression and spine), veins and arteries running along the neck. On the other hand, if patients choose to not undergo a neck dissection, they may be at the risk of not diagnosing the cancer's complete spread early enough. This could impact their quality of life and, more importantly, their survival.”

However, Dr Chaturvedi asserted that "this research has put an end to this debate. A neck dissection can save more lives. All it requires is 30 minutes extra on the operation table.''

The findings, which also appeared in the latest edition of New England Journal of Medicine, were announced by Tata Memorial Centre's Dr Anil D'Cruz at an ongoing meeting of American Society of Clinical Oncology at Chicago on May 31.
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