Oral Cancer Screening

VELscope Oral Cancer Screening

Every hour of every day in America someone dies of Oral Cancer. Oral Cancer is the sixth most common diagnosed form of cancer in the United States. Presently 30,000 patients are diagnosed annually with oral cancer. The 5-year survival rate is only 50%, accounting for 8,000 deaths each year. Oral Cancer risk factors include tobacco use, frequent and/or excessive alcohol consumption, a compromised immune system, past history of cancer, and the presence of the HPV virus. Recently however 25% of all newly diagnosed cases have been in patients under the age of forty with none of the known risk factors. Oral Cancer is one of the few cancers whose survival rate has not improved in the past 50 years.

The reason these statistics are so grim is that oral cancer is often detected in its later stages.  However, when detected early, before the disease spreads destroying healthy tissue, the chances of survival are greatly improved.  Dr. Caldwell uses VELscope advanced detection technology that is designed to provide an answer to the question of whether malignancy exists or not, through a quick, minimally invasive, and inexpensive procedure.