Early Diagnosis Methods of Cancer Lesions in Oral Cavity - Systematic Review

Oral cancers comprise between 1% and 2% of all malignant neoplasms. A delay in recognition decreases the chances of successful treatment. Recently, numerous procedures have been introduced to help detect oral cancer lesions at the earliest stage. The objective of this article is to review early diagnostic methods in medical and scientific literature. A systematic literature search was carried out in MEDLINE (PubMed), MEDLINE (Ovid) and the ISI Web of Knowledge from 2000 to January 10, 2013. Only the articles whose main subject was the early detection of pre-cancerous and cancerous lesions were included. Staining and other methods that use light, besides detecting dysplasia and metaplasia, also increase the visibility of lesions. Thanks to chemiluminescence, pathologically changed tissue becomes clearer and more visible during sample collection. Incision biopsy has some disadvantages, which may lead to false negative results. These disadvantages can be reduced through careful adherence to the procedure and use of additional visualization methods, but invasiveness make this the last of choice technique. Nowadays, incision biopsy is considered the gold standard of diagnosis. However, many less invasive methods that are highly sensitive and specific also seem to be effective.