Web Exclusive | August 2008

MID | Raising oral cancer awareness

Through events and Web sites, more of your patients are learning about oral cancer and what you can do to help them prevent it.

By Renee Knight


David Nasto never thought the sore in his mouth might actually be cancer.

The otherwise healthy Nasto wasn’t one to go to the dentist on a regular basis, his sister Susan Lauria said, and he waited about four months after the sore appeared to make an appointment.

By then, he was having trouble eating and swallowing.

Remembering a loved one Susan Lauria has organized an event aimed at generating oral cancer awareness. The David Nasto Memorial Walk for Oral Cancer Awareness, set for Sept. 27 in New Jersey, will include free oral cancer screenings and information. All proceeds will go to the Oral Cancer Foundation, (oralcancerfoundation.org) where Lauria is the new events coordinator—a role she’s excited to take on in her older brother’s memory. This is the first of what she hopes to make an annual event. It’s a way for her to remember her brother and educate people about this deadly disease at the same time. “The whole motto of the Oral Cancer Foundation is early detection saves lives,” Lauria said. “People just have to be aware of what’s in their mouth and not let it go.” Event details What: The David Nasto Memorial Walk Where: Perona Farms, Sussex County, New Jersey When: Sept. 27 Registration: $20 per walker Contact: Susan Lauria, susanspeaks@aol.com Another event to raise awareness What: Walk the Rock Where: Nelson Park, Plymouth, Mass. When: Sept. 21 Registration: $20 Contact: Lauren, 508-353-8238 or visit walktherock.net.

When his dentist saw the source of his problems, he sent Nasto to an oral surgeon for a biopsy. That’s when Nasto was told he had stage 4 tongue cancer. He died about a year later at age 47.
After seeing how her brother suffered, Lauria said she realized how important it is for dentists to keep their patients informed, to talk with them about the signs of oral cancer.

“I don’t think people really know what oral cancer is. People don’t know that if a sore doesn’t heal in three or four days, it’s a problem,” said Lauria, who has organized an event to raise awareness about this disease. “I think dentists should tell people these can be signs of cancer.”

Oral cancer doesn’t get as much attention as lung cancer, breast cancer or many other diseases, but there are people out there like Lauria who are doing their part to educate both consumers and dental professionals—all in an effort to save lives.

Educating the patient

Too many clinicians and hygienists simply aren’t educating patients like Nasto about oral cancer, and that’s something that really needs to change, said Louis Malcmacher, DDS, MAGD, who has a practice in Ohio. To help make that shift, his children, David Malcmacher and Shana Meystel, have developed a Web site called Oral Cancer Self Exam. The site is full of facts about oral cancer, complete with a tutorial on how patients can perform self exams at home.

Dr. Malcmacher has been promoting the Web site, which went live in May. Word about the site has gotten out quickly, he said, and about 70 dentists have signed up to be listed as doctors committed to preventing this disease.

“A lot of patients don’t consider oral cancer a disease,” Dr. Malcmacher said. “They don’t know what it is and hardly ever pay attention to it. With the Web site, we can make consumers more aware and give dentists a kick in the pants.”

Getting the word out

Oral cancer doesn’t get much media attention, Dr. Malcmacher said, making this an even more important conversation for doctors and patients to have. He hopes the Web site will help make that exchange more common. If patients are informed, they’ll come into their appointments armed with questions. And if they spot something odd while doing a self exam, they’ll be more likely to make that appointment in the first place.

“If we as dentists don’t do it, no one else is going to,” Dr. Malcmacher said. “I don’t care who you are in dentistry, we as an industry have to take the bull by the horns and focus on oral cancer and prevention and really reducing the mortality rate. That’s the bottom line. That’s exactly the point of the Web site. It gets consumers and dentists to really take this much more seriously.”