Dear Oral Cancer & Diagnostics Insider,
Invasive and painful, biopsies remain the current gold standard for evaluating suspicious oral lesions. But Petra Wilder-Smith, DMD, PhD, a researcher at the University of California, Irvine Beckman Laser Institute, knew there had to be a better way. Find out how optical imaging technology could be used for oral cancer screening by dentists in this latest Insider Exclusive.
In other Oral Cancer & Diagnostics Community news, an oral rinse may be able to predict the recurrence of oropharyngeal cancer related to human papillomavirus (HPV), according to a new study in JAMA Oncology. Read how the research may lead to earlier detection of recurrence and new monitoring protocols.
Meanwhile, enhanced oral cancer detection can help general practitioners save patients' lives while protecting dentists from malpractice lawsuits, according to a session at the recent California Dental Association meeting. Dentists should be aware of the disease's changing demographics as an alarming number of young people who don't have the usual risk factors have been diagnosed with oral cancer in the past few years. Click here for more.
Finally, the number of 13- to 17-year-old U.S. boys and girls receiving the HPV vaccine increased for the second year in a row, but about half of U.S. adolescents still haven't received it, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Read how the vaccine could prevent most of the 27,000 HPV-related cancer cases reported annually.
