Reducing the risk of oral cancer
Warnings about the dangers of smoking have helped reduce the number of kids who start to smoke. But there has been a noticeable increase among high school students using another product with its own serious health risks: smokeless tobacco.
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Many teenage boys use smokeless tobacco after seeing
their sports heroes use it, and have the mistaken
assumption that it is less addictive than smoking.
Actually, using one can of smokeless tobacco is
equivalent to smoking 80 cigarettes. |
“There has been a lot of publicity about the connection between smoking and lung cancer,” says Randall Oyer, MD, Program Director of the Lancaster General Cancer Center. “Unfortunately, many young people—mostly boys—are substituting smoking with smokeless tobacco because they believe it to be less addictive and less dangerous.”
That is an incorrect assumption, Dr. Oyer says. “Smokeless tobacco contains nicotine, which makes it addictive.”
And while chewing tobacco doesn’t carry the same risk of lung cancer or heart disease as smoking, it comes with its own health risks—the most serious of which is oral cancer.
Each year, 40,000 new cases of oral, larynx and throat cancer are diagnosed, and annually there are 12,000 deaths resulting from those conditions. Tobacco use is considered a factor in more than 90% of oral tumors.
It can be difficult to identify oral cancer early, when it can be treated more successfully.
“We usually see oral cancer after the age of 40, following years of exposure to smokeless tobacco,” Dr. Oyer says. “Because it can be hard to identify, patients will often show signs or symptoms only when the disease has advanced.”
The combination of tobacco and alcohol further increases the risk of cancer. “The cancer-causing chemicals in tobacco combined with the chemical and nutritional changes caused by alcohol can prevent healing and exponentially increase the chances of developing cancer,” Dr. Oyer says.
Chewing tobacco contributes to other oral health concerns, including leukoplakia (a condition characterized by a whitish patch that develops inside the mouth or throat), gingivitis, periodontal disease… not to mention cosmetic concerns such as tooth staining, bad breath and tooth loss.
Lancaster General welcomes people seeking to quit smokeless tobacco into its smoking cessation program, Freedom from Smoking.
“The behavior modification techniques used to quit smoking can also be effective in helping people overcome their addiction to smokeless tobacco,” Dr. Oyer says. And like smoking, the sooner you quit chewing tobacco, the better your chances of avoiding serious health problems associated with tobacco.
For more information or to register for Freedom from Smoking visit us
online, or call (800) 341-2121.
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