Dental 4 Less, How is Mouth/Oral Cancer Diagnosed?
A GP (general practitioner, primary care physician) will carry out a physical examination and ask the patient questions about his/her symptoms. If oral cancer is suspected the patient will be referred to either an oncologist or an ENT (ear, nose and throat) specialist. An oncologist is a doctor who specializes in diagnosing and treating cancers. ENT specialists are also known as Otolaryngologists.
- Biopsy – the doctor may take a small sample of tissue to see if there are cancerous cells. In most cases the patient will be under general anesthetic. In some instances, just a local anesthetic is used, especially if the biopsy involves taking a sample from the surface of the tissue (fine needle aspiration biopsy).
As soon as mouth cancer is diagnosed the doctor will determine the extent (stage) of the cancer. Tests to help staging may include:
- Endoscopy – the doctor passes a lighted scope down the patient’s throat to see whether the cancer has spread beyond the mouth.
- Imaging tests – the following tests may help the doctor determine whether the cancer has spread:
- X-rays
- Computerized tomography (CT) scans
- Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scans
- PET (positron emission tomography) scans
Staging the cancer (identifying its stage) provides a universally understood definition of a particular cancer’s progress. It helps in the planning of treatment protocol for that particular cancer, helps in determining prognosis (predicting likely outcomes), and also allows accurate end-results reporting.