Our office has partnered with the Oral Cancer Fountation in honor of Oral Cancer Awarness Month and will be offering free oral cancer screenings on April 26th 2012 from 9-4 , to the public, on an appointment basis. Oral cancer has existed outside the understanding of much of the public, yet 37,000 Americans will be newly diagnosed this year alone. We would like to invite your organization an d employees to our office to get a free oral cancer screening in an effort to raise awareness for this silent killer.
These screenings are more important now then ever because oral cancer is on the rise. There are two distinct pathways by which most people come to oral cancer. One is through the use of tobacco and alcohol, a long term historical problem and cause, the other is through the exposure to the HPV-16 virus, which is now the leading cause of oral cancers in the U.S. Today we are seeing young, non-smoking individuals as the fastest growing segment of the oral cancer population. When found early, oral cancers have a 80% survival rate. Unfortunately, the majorities are found as late stage cancers and this accounts for the very high death rate of about 45% at five years from diagnosis. Late stage diagnosis is not occurring because these cancers are hard to discover, but it is a lack of public awareness and a lack of a national program for opportunistic screenings.
Oral cancer is not a rare disease. It kills one person every hour of every day in the U.S., and 100 new individuals will be diagnosed each day with oral cancer. These staggering statistics make these free events crucial, as awareness of the disease and its risk factors in the U.S. population is so low. Please don’t miss out on this opportunity for a free oral cancer screening.
