FATEHGARH SAHIB: Dr Shivpreet Singh Samra of Grecian super-specialty hospital, Mohali said that the growing specter of 'Lip Cancer' may be causing a grave concern for the people at large with occurrences fairly frequent in this part of the country.

He however said that the sophisticated and much advanced cancer treatment therapies by surgical and radiation procedure in super specialty hospitals is actually showing a bright way for a highly effective cure of this form of cancer.

Talking to select media persons here, Dr Samra said that Lip cancer, which forms a part of head and neck cancers usually, is never understood as a separate anomaly which requires a trained expert to actually treat it. He said that lip cancers form 1 per cent  of all types of cancers but are potentially grave in the sense that lip cancers constitute 15 per cent  of the head and neck cancers which occur to individuals.

Interestingly 33 per cent  of all the cancers are head and neck related, making such cancers a potential threat indeed. Especially Northern India which is  finding a higher proportion of head and neck cancer vis a vis other parts of the country, he added. 

Dr Samra informed that  Lip cancer occurs with the passage of age. He said that usually   lip cancer occurs after the age of 40 and seldom taken seriously. However the advanced surgical and radiation mode treatments available with super-specialty hospitals in the region like Grecian makes the process all the more easy, he added.

Dr  Samra informed  that like all head and neck cancers, Lip cancers very rarely spread to distant organs like lungs and liver. In these, major complications are by way of invasion in the oral cavity and involvement of lymph nodes in the neck which work as local drainage sumps on either side of the neck. Early detection is the key but is selectively available in India.

He said that experts believe that with 87 per cent  occurrence of this cancer happening in males, lip cancer can be considered a fairly dreaded disease which often occurs due to excessive misuse of tobacco, heavy alcohol consumption and syphilis which is a sexually transmitted disease.  Dr Samra, however, suggested  abundant caution which may be exercised in watching closely the symptoms for lip cancers which are in form of unusual new ulcers, papules or a wound on the lip. He said that a new lesion on the lips needs to be investigated by an expert who can use diagnostical techniques like biopsy under local anesthesia which is largely accurate.

Chest X ray is also required but rarely involved. Only in advanced stage lip cancers, an endoscopic examination of oral cavity along with a CT scan of neck is required. He said that Cancer surgeons however agree that though treatment of lip cancer by both surgery and radiotherapy is available but latter offers lesser scope of a 100 per cent  accuracy of treatment. Surgery on the other hand, like in most of the head and neck cancer cases, is a superior and more effective treatment to lip cancer. With 80-90 per cent accuracy, radio therapy in lip cancer leads to considerable morbidity and need not necessarily clear the margins of the tumor as is possible through surgery.

Only practically impossible surgical situation in select  cases do actually call for radiotherapy as far as lip cancer is concerned.  However experts feel that once dreaded, lip cancer is now fairly curable in Punjab, Chandigarh and Haryana with more advanced and superspeciality cancer care centres like Grecian Superspeciality hospital in Mohali coming up, he concluded.