Health professionals and mouth cancer

A mouth cancer specialistAbout Open Up to Mouth Cancer

Open Up to Mouth Cancer is a national campaign run by Cancer Research UK with funding from the Department of Health (England).

One of our key objectives is to work with local health professionals on the early detection and prevention of mouth cancer.

A growing public health problem

Doctors diagnose more cases of mouth cancer than either cervical or testicular cancer each year in the UK. Yet many people know little about the disease.

In 2005 the World Health Organisation held a special congress in Greece to stress the importance of oral cancer. The resulting Crete Declaration on Oral Cancer Prevention asserts that oral health is integral to general health and wellbeing and calls for more monitoring, research, information provision and training of health professionals.

The role of health professionals

Health professionals have a key role to play because mouth cancer is both preventable and treatable if found early. For more information see our why mouth cancer? pages.

Professionals can help by:

  • Checking that they are familiar with the professional information available in this section
  • Ordering relevant resources for professional development and patient communication (mostly free of charge)
  • Identifying 'at risk' groups requiring particular attention
  • Educating clients on mouth cancer prevention and early detection
  • Promptly referring patients showing the early warning signs to appropriate specialists

In this section

In this section you will find:

More details of campaign resources for both professionals and the public can be found on our order resources page. These resources are free of charge.

Sign up for our health e-newsletter!

Cancer Research UK's Reduce the Risk campaign produces a quarterly e-newsletter with information for professionals interested in our health campaigns and cancer prevention. You can sign up for the free e-newsletter from the Reduce the Risk website.