Lida Radfar - Oklahoma University, USA

Oral cancer is the largest group of the head and neck cancer category. Worldwide incidence isexceeding 640,000 cases annually. 1t is estimated that in year 20d6, 48,000 people in the US will benewly diagnosed with oral cancer. There are two distinct pathways by which most people come tooral cancer. One is through the use of tobacco and alcohol, a long term historic problem and cause,and the other is through exposure to the HPV virus. Other factors such as age, genetic susceptibilityhave an important role in developing oral cancer. 1f oral cancer is detected in early stage, prognosiswill be significantly better than those detected in later stages. Therefore, we emphasize onprevention and early detection of oral cancer. 1n this presentation oral cancer epidemiology,pathology, risk factors, and prevention will be discussed.