Hi. I'm Dr. Katharine Price at Mayo Clinic,
and I'm here to answer some of
the important questions you may
have about oral cancer.
There are several things that you can
do to prevent oral cancer.
The most important is not to use any tobacco.
It is also important not to drink
too much alcohol or to
abstain from alcohol altogether.
A very simple thing that
everyone can do that will
decrease the risk of oral cancer
is increase fruit and vegetable consumption.
It's very important to try and reduce
stress and to exercise on a regular basis.
So as a cancer doctor,
I'm commonly asked what is my chance of cure?
And that's a very
difficult question because there is
no absolute time point where we can
say that you are cured of your cancer.
But for oral cancer,
most of the cancers will come
back within the first two years of treatment.
And if somebody gets to five years
after treatment with no sign of cancer,
the chance of it coming
back is very, very low.
So in general, we think about
a five-year mark after
cancer treatment as being cured.
But again, it is not an absolute cut-off
and sometimes we'll see
recurrences beyond that point.
But it is very unlikely.
It is very important for
all patients to know that
mental illness after or during
a diagnosis of oral cancer is very common.
The most common things that we'll see
are depression and anxiety.
Depression is very common,
particularly when patients are
going through treatment or immediately
afterwards where they still have a lot of
symptoms that they're trying to recover from.
Anxiety would be
the most common thing that we see.
Because a diagnosis of cancer
highlights the uncertainty of the future.
None of us know what the future holds.
None of us know if we're going to survive
tomorrow or a year or 10 years from now.
But having a cancer diagnosis
really brings that to the forefront.
What is really important for patients to
know is that help is available.
That help can take a lot
of different forms, from
medications to
therapy to alternative treatments.
If you happen to be
taking care of somebody who
has oral cancer and is
going through oral cancer treatment,
the most important thing that you can do is
show up and be there for them
in a general sense.
There's a lot of
things that are impacted when
somebody goes through oral cancer treatment.
Some of the things that we do every day are
hard: eating, sleeping, speaking.
They may have pain.
They may have side effects from treatment.
And unfortunately, as a caregiver,
you can't take any of those things away,
but you can be supportive in
a general sense and just be there with them.
Know that you can't fix it,
but that you can walk on
that pathway with them
so that they're not alone.
When someone is going through
cancer treatment,
your medical team does not
expect you to pretend
like everything's okay or
put on a happy face.
We know that you're going through
difficult problems and we know that
the treatment that we're having you do
can be very difficult
and cause a lot of symptoms.
So the single most important thing is
to communicate with your team,
to let them know how you're doing.
Never hesitate to ask
your medical team any questions
or concerns you have.
Being informed makes all the difference.
Thanks for your time and we wish you well.