French researchers said visual screenings of people with a high-risk of developing oral cancer could prevent 37,000 deaths worldwide annually.
“Our findings support the routine use of oral visual screening in reducing oral cancer mortality among the high-risk group of tobacco (and) alcohol users,” said Rengaswamy Sankaranarayanan, the study’s principal author, of the International Agency for Research on Cancer in Lyon, France.
Mouth cancer is a significant problem in developing countries and it is the most common cause of cancer death in men in India partly due to the popularity of chewing a substance called pan-tobacco.
In the study, which appears in the June 4 issue of the British journal The Lancet, the researchers compared people over the age of 35 in India who underwent a simple visual screening for signs of oral cancer with those who did not get the screening. Mortality was reduced 34 percent in the screening group at the end of nine years.
– United Press International