Utilidad del screening en el cáncer oral

Resumo

Early detection of oral cancer has a great relevance, since it increases the patients survival chances significantly. With this purpose, different methods have been proposed along time, obtaining more or less effective results.The aim of this study is to check the usefulness of screening methods on general population. Screening methods do not diagnose diseases, but discriminate between people susceptible to suffer or not these diseases. For this reason, different aspects of diagnosis of oral cancer, different methods for early diagnosis and screening programs performed on wide population ranges have been reviewed. To conclude, massive screening for detection of oral cancer is not recommended, since although oral cancer represents a public health problem because of its high mortality, its natural history is unknown and available methods for early detection are not sensitive enough. However, performing routine examinations on patient demanding dental care has a great importance in the detection of early lesions of oral cancer.