Epidemiological Features of Oral Cancer

Cancer is one of the significant dangers to general wellbeing in the developed world and increasingly in the developing world. In developed countries, cancer is the second most frequent reason for death. Oral cancer generally incorporates cancer of the lip, tongue, salivary glands, and other sites in the mouth; while pharyngeal cancer includes cancers of the nasopharynx, oropharynx, and hypopharynx. Over 90% of oral or pharyngeal cancers are squamous cells in inception. The malignancy epidemic is because of the combined effect of the aging of populations, and the elevated or rising levels of prevalence of cancer risk factors. Precisely tying trends in cancer incidence to alter the risk or protective behaviors would necessitate national databases that focus on particular age groups, account for the numerous interactions between behavioral and demographic risk factors, and factor in the substantial lag time between exposure to risk or protective factors and the ultimate occurrence of disease.