Smokers ‘unconcerned over mouth cancer’
11/13/2005 London, England staff Daily Mail (www.dailymail.co.uk) Smokers are worryingly unconcerned about the high risks they face from mouth cancer, research has revealed. While the dangers of lung cancer remain at the forefront of fears about tobacco, many remain unaware that smokers are six times more likely to develop mouth cancer than non-smokers. A survey has now found that nine out of 10 smokers (89 per cent) put concerns about mouth cancer as a low priority. Only 5 per cent of 16 to 24-year-olds who smoke said they worried about mouth cancer - despite the fact that 90 per cent of people with mouth cancer are tobacco users. The research, by dental plan provider Denplan, came during Mouth Cancer Awareness Week, which runs until November 19. Charity Cancer Research UK is this week also to warn about the link between alcohol consumption and a rise in mouth cancer cases in the UK, with a new campaign to raise awareness of the signs and symptoms. Around 4,300 new cases of mouth cancer - also known as oral cancer - are diagnosed in the UK each year. The Denplan survey, of more than 2,200 people, found that both smokers and non-smokers were more likely to worry about other types of cancer than mouth cancer with only one in five (20 per cent) concerned about contracting the disease. But with half of people with mouth cancer dying from the disease, it has a higher proportion of deaths than breast, cervical and skin cancer. [...]