• 10/14/2004
  • Wakefield, United Kingdom
  • Gavin Murray
  • Wakefield Today (wakefieldtoday.co.uk)

Cases of oral cancer in the Wakefield district are way above the national average with eight new cases diagnosed every month, according to worried health specialists.

Late diagnosis of the cancer, also known as head and neck cancer, may be a result of the growing number of people unable to register with a dentist in the district. But, if the cancer is caught early enough, it has a 90 per cent chance of being cured and is 75 per cent preventable.

Julie Hoole, a Macmillan head and neck cancer nurse specialist working across Wakefield, wants to highlight the problem of the world’s sixth most common cancer. She said: “Nationally there has been a 17 per cent increase in reported cases. Oral cancer or neck and head cancer is comparable with cervical cancer but it is less well-known.”

But during the last 30 years survival rates from this cancer have not improved, while treatments and medical technology has. This is due to patients being unaware they have the cancer and not seeking medical attention early enough.

At the moment most referrals are made by dentists and not doctors.
Mrs Hoole said: “A lot of people are having difficulty registering with dentists and we are not sure at the moment if this is the reason for the increase. But if people had the chance to visit dentists more often the cancer would be picked up quicker. Many sufferers only go to the doctors when they have ulcers they cannot get rid of. It is a problem for now and the future.”

Smoking 25 cigarettes a day or drinking more than 12 units of alcohol increase the risk of getting oral cancer by 35 per cent – consequently the majority of sufferers are smokers. There has also been an increase in female patients who do not smoke or drink.

Mrs Hoole is set to take her message to schools across the district during national mouth cancer awareness week which starts on Monday, November 8. She said: “Along with the smoking cessation team and the dental community team we will be visiting 14-year-olds to talk to them about smoking. We will be showing them slides of someone who has had to have their tongue removed because of cancer. Accompanying us will be a patient who has had tongue cancer.”

In September and October next year Mrs Hoole is set to climb Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania as part of the Macmillan challenge to raise money for the charity and to raise awareness of head and neck cancer.
Ossett and Horbury Rotary Club has already donated £1,000 to her appeal and she is determined to raise a minimum of £2,900 for Macmillan Cancer Relief. Cancer Research figures from 2003 claimed one person dies every five hours from head and neck cancer.