Oral Cancer Screening: Past, Present, and Future

Oral cancer is a major public health problem, and there is an increasing trend for oral cancer to affect young men and women. Public awareness is poor, and many patients present with late-stage disease, contributing to high mortality. Oral cancer is often preceded by a clinical premalignant phase accessible to visual inspection, and thus there are opportunities for earlier detection and to reduce morbidity and mortality. Screening asymptomatic individuals by systematic visual oral examinations to detect the disease has been shown to be feasible. A positive screen includes both oral cancer and oral potentially malignant disorders. We review key screening studies undertaken, including 1 randomized clinical trial. Screening of high-risk groups is cost-effective. Strengths and weaknesses of oral cancer screening studies are presented to help guide new research in primary care settings and invigorated by the prospect of using emerging new technologies that may help to improve discriminatory accuracy of case detection. Most national organizations, including the US Preventive Services Task Force, have so far not recommended population-based screening due a lack of sufficient evidence that screening leads to a reduction in oral cancer mortality. Where health care resources are high, opportunistic screening in dental practices is recommended, although the paucity of research in primary care is alarming. The results of surveys suggest that dentists do perform oral cancer screenings, but there is only weak evidence that screening in dental practices leads to downstaging of disease. Where health care resources are low, the feasibility of using primary health care workers for oral cancer screening has been tested, and measures indicate good outcomes. Most studies reported in the literature are based on 1 round of screening, whereas screening should be a continuous process. This review identifies a huge potential for new research directions on screening for oral cancer.