A MEDLINE search early in 2015 revealed more than 250,000 papers on head and neck cancer; over 100,000 on oral cancer; and over 60,000 on mouth cancer. Not all publications contain robust evidence. We endeavour to encapsulate the most important of the latest information and advances now employed in practice, in a form comprehensible to healthcare workers, patients and their carers. This series offers the primary care dental team in particular, an overview of the aetiopathogenesis, prevention, diagnosis and multidisciplinary care of mouth cancer, the functional and psychosocial implications, and minimization of the impact on the quality of life of patient and family.
Clinical Relevance: This article offers the dental team an overview of the multidisciplinary team (MDT; or multi-speciality team) and its roles, and an overview of the implications of therapies that are discussed more fully in future articles in the series.
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Patient communication and information are crucial aspects in mouth cancer management. A multidisciplinary approach is required to optimize patient wellbeing, and the dental team also have a key role in patient care; therefore the dental team should be knowledgeable in the implications as to how cancer impacts on quality of life (QoL). They should understand that cancer survival rates have been, and are, improving, so that not only are more patients living with cancer, but they and their loved ones are also having to cope with the adverse effects of cancer and its various treatments.
Early lesions in otherwise healthy patients, especially those in sites such as the lip, have such a good prognosis that they might be said to be ‘curable’. The prognosis of later, and intra-oral cancers, in contrast, is not so good, but little is gained by expressing this without extreme sensitivity to the patient or relative. People should always have hope for the best, even in the face of adversity (‘Hope springs eternal’).
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