Health Dictionary
Reliable, easy-to-read patient information on common medical conditions — written in plain language, free of jargon, and grounded in current evidence. Browse the most frequent diagnoses, understand what they mean for everyday life, and learn which steps and questions help you have a focused conversation with your doctor.
Oral cancer causes
Introduction
Overview
Overview
Common causes of oral cancers include premalignant lesions, tobacco, alcohol, human papillomavirus, and hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. Tobacco use is the cause of 75% oral cancer cases . It causes an irritation of mucous membrane in the mouth. HPV type 16 is the most common sub-type of human papilloma virus associated with oral cancer.
Causes
Causes
Common causes of oral cancer include:
- Pre-malignant lesion[1]
- Benign and morphologically-altered tissue
- Pre-malignant lesions are of various types:
- Leukoplakia – benign white patches
- Erythroplakia – red patches
- Erythroleukoplakia – mixed red and white patches
- Lichen planus
- Oral sub-mucous fibrosis – very common in Indian sub-continents
- actinic cheilitis
- Tobacco
- 75% cases of oral cancers occur due to tobacco use.
- Use of it causes irritation of the mucous membrane in the mouth.
- Both smoking and chewing tobacco can lead to irritation of mucous membrane of the mouth.
- 60 types of carcinogens are known to be present in tobacco smoke.
- If any form of tobacco use is combined with heavy alcohol intake, the carcinogenic potential increases.
- Alcohol[2]
- Heavy alcohol intake can lead to cancer of pharynx and larynx.
- Carcinogenic potential increases when combined with tobacco use.
- Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation
- This causes an increased risk for squamous cell carcinoma.
References
References
- ↑ Colvin RB, Pinn VW, Simpson BA, Dvorak HF (1973). “Cutaneous basophil hypersensitivity. IV. The “late reaction”: sequel to Jones-Mote type hypersensitivity. Comparison with rabbit Arthus reaction. Effect of passive antibody on induction and expression of Jones-Mote hypersensitivity”. J. Immunol. 110 (5): 1279–89. PMID 4266835.
- ↑ Stornetta A, Guidolin V, Balbo S (2018). “Alcohol-Derived Acetaldehyde Exposure in the Oral Cavity”. Cancers (Basel). 10 (1). doi:10.3390/cancers10010020. PMID 29342885.
- ↑ Shah A, Malik A, Garg A, Mair M, Nair S, Chaturvedi P (2017). “Oral sex and human papilloma virus-related head and neck squamous cell cancer: a review of the literature”. Postgrad Med J. 93 (1105): 704–709. doi:10.1136/postgradmedj-2016-134603. PMID 28778951.
Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1]; Associate Editor(s)-in-Chief: Sargun Singh Walia M.B.B.S.[2], Simrat Sarai, M.D. [3]; Grammar Reviewer: Natalie Harpenau, B.S.[4]