Research Journal of Medical Sciences
ISSN: Online 1993-6095ISSN: Print 1815-9346
Abstract
The term oral cavity refers to lips, buccal mucosa, alveolar ridges, retro molar trigone, hard palate, floor of the mouth and anterior two‐thirds of the tongue. Oral cancer or oral cavity cancer, a subtype of head and neck cancer, is any cancerous tissue growth located in the oral cavity. India has about one third of oral cancer cases in the world.In India, 20 per 100000 populations are affected by oral cancer which accounts for about 30% of all types of cancer. In general, more men suffer and die from oral cancer than women. Worldwide, oral cancer has one of the lowest survival rates that remain unaltered despite recent therapeutic advances. Since time immemorial, this problem has been a great financial as well as social burden on the society, especially in the Indian subcontinent. Oral cancers can be easily detected due to ease of access to the lesions in the oral cavity. Despite this fact, many patients present with advanced cancers not amenable to surgical treatment. Almost half of the oral neoplasms are diagnosed at stages III or IV, with 5‐year survival rates ranging from 20% to 50% depending upon tumor sites. Delay at presentation in such patients is an important prognostic factor since timely surgical intervention is of paramount importance for a successful therapy. In our study we aimed to find out the chief causes of delay in seeking specialist care in advanced oral cancer patients. Out of 127 patients presenting with advanced cancer at the OPD in our study, the major causes for delayed presentation in our part of the country were patient ignorance, seeking alternative non allopathic remedies and also cost crunch to some extent.
How to cite this article:
Mohd. Athar, Sanjay Kumar Dosar, Nishant Ranjan, Siddharth Singh and Ashish Chaudhary. Factors Delaying the Diagnosis of Oral Cancer: A Hospital Based Study.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.36478/makrjms.2025.5.21.27
URL: https://www.makhillpublications.co/view-article/1815-9346/makrjms.2025.5.21.27