Source: Jacksonville News (www.news4jax.com) Author: staff This year, more than 34,000 people in the United States will be diagnosed with oral cancer -- a cancer that has a higher death rate than cervical cancer, Hodgkin's lymphoma, or skin cancer. Survival rates are not improving; but now, a new treatment may give doctors a way to stop oral cancers before they start. They're often detected in a routine dental or doctor's exam … red or white lesions called leukoplakia that can turn into serious, even deadly oral cancers. "I do happen to know people that have died of this kind of cancer and so we watch it very closely," said Mike Hagerman, a former smoker and a two-time oral cancer survivor. Now, Hagerman's leukoplakia is back. This time, he's part of a study testing a new photodynamic laser treatment designed to eliminate precancerous cells. "When the laser fires onto the lesion, it emits light at a very specific frequency that causes oxygen radicals that destroy the lesion, make it go away," explained Stuart Wong, M.D., a medical oncologist at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee. Tested on the hand or used in the mouth on actual lesions, researchers say the laser doesn’t hurt. It’s a preventive measure that doctor say could save lives. "There is some emerging data that the better we can kill off these early precancerous lesions, that that might translate later down the road many, many years to a decreasing in the development of cancers and that's [...]