• 3/4/2008
  • Chicago, IL
  • staff
  • Chicago Sun-Times (www.suntimes.com)

Fluorescent scan helped detect man’s lesions that could have developed into cancer

It might be nothing serious, but a sore in your mouth that shows no sign of healing could also be a warning sign of oral cancer, which kills more than 8,000 people a year.

Often, it’s not diagnosed until it’s advanced because symptoms — sore throat, white or red patches on the gums or tongue, numbness — are easy to put off to something less serious.

Last year, Grant Achatz, the acclaimed chef at Alinea, shocked the food world by announcing he had late-stage oral cancer — which, after treatment, is in remission.

About 34,000 people a year are diagnosed with oral cancer nationally. Caught early, it has a 75 percent to 80 percent five-year survival rate. But late diagnosis lowers the survival rate to just 50 percent, says Richard Price, an American Dental Association spokesman.

Also, screening for oral cancer typically has largely relied on a dentist spotting or feeling something amiss.

But recent advances make it easier for dentists to spot problems early. Among them: the VELscope, an instrument that was showcased at the Chicago Dental Society’s recent midwinter meeting. The device emits a blue light that causes the mouth to glow. Healthy tissue glows green under that light; cancerous tissue looks brown or black. The test takes two to three minutes.

Some Chicago-area dentists use another device, called Vizilite — a glowstick that highlights abnormalities in the mouth after patients rinse with a special solution.

Though both devices can falsely warn of trouble, “Any way I can do what I do better, it’s certainly worth it,” says Benjamin Fiss, a Gold Coast dentist who uses the VELscope.

When James Purcell got his teeth cleaned last summer, his dentist used the VELscope and found a lesion in Purcell’s cheek that could have developed into oral cancer. The precancerous cells in the Lake Barrington man’s cheek would have been hard to detect without the fluorescent scan, according to the dentist, Gregory Tehle. And while it was “four days of waiting in hell” for the results of a biopsy to confirm he was cancer-free, Purcell says he’s very happy his dentist offered the test. And now, he says, he asks for the VELscope screening at every cleaning.

“Nobody wants to know they have cancer, but, heck, if you can find it earlier and catch it before it overcomes you, why wouldn’t you?” Purcell says.

Heavy smokers, especially those who drink alcohol, are at the highest risk for oral cancer. But more than a quarter of people who develop this cancer have no known risk factors, and the number of cases among people under 40 has grown dramatically, according to Price.

One culprit appears to be the human papillomavirus, or HPV, better known as the cause of cervical cancer but also a cause of oral cancer, transmitted via oral sex.

What can you do to protect against oral cancer? Experts recommend that, every time you go for a cleaning or checkup, your dentist should give you a complete oral exam. You should also look for any changes in the color or appearance of the soft tissue in your mouth, especially if a sore or bump persists longer than a few days.

Don’t wait until you’re in pain because “when it hurts, it’s usually progressed pretty far,” dentist Trucia Drummond says.