Trent W Smallwood DDS Weblog

Most people are surprised to learn that one American dies every hour from oral cancer; a death rate that has remained virtually unchanged for more than 40 years. In fact, recent statistics published by the American Cancer Society indicate that while the incidence and death rates for cancers overall has decreased, the incidence of oral cancer has increased by 5.5% and the death rate has increased by 1.5%

Oral cancer is far too often discovered in late stage development, the primary reason for the consistently high death rate. Oral cancer treatment often results in disfiguring effects on patients, and can seriously compromise their quality of life. Early detection and diagnosis can make a tremendous difference in life expectancy; oral cancer is 90% curable when found in its early stages. Unfortunately, 70% of oral cancers are diagnosed in the late stages, III and IV, leading to a five-year survival rate of 57%.

THE DEADLY STATISTICS

• Every hour of every day, one American dies of oral cancer.
• The mortality rate associated with oral cancer has not improved significantly in the last 40 years.
• The death rate in the United States for oral cancer is higher than that of cervical cancer, Hodgkin’s disease, cancer of the brain, liver, testes, kidney, or ovary.
• More than 30,000 Americans will receive an oral cancer diagnosis this year. In five years, only 57% will still be alive.
• 25% of oral cancer victims do not use tobacco or alcohol and have no other lifestyle risk factors.

About Vizilite:

ViziLite Plus with TBlue is an oral lesion identification and marking system that is used as an adjunct to the conventional head and neck examination. It is comprised of a chemiluminescent light source (ViziLite) to improve the identification of lesions and a blue phenothiazine dye to mark those lesions identified by ViziLite. ViziLitePlus with TBlue is designed to be used in a patient population at increased risk for oral cancer.

Lumenoscopy^{TM -}  Examination of the Oral Cavity with ViziLite

In clinical trials involving 13,000 female patients, abnormal squamous epithelium in the cervical complex appears distinctly white after washing the cervix with a dilute acetic acid solution and viewed under chemiluminescent light (Speculite®).  Similarly, examination of the oral cavity under chemiluminescent light (ViziLite) after rinsing with a dilute acetic acid solution, abnormal squamous epithelium tissue will appear distinctly white. Lumenoscopy^TMhas demonstrated in numerous studies to improve the ability to visualize mucosal lesions and initially identify clinically suspicious lesions. 

ViziLite Lumenoscopy^TM

• Normal epithelium absorbs ViziLite illumination
• Abnormal epithelium: leukoplakias appear white; red lesions appear darker than surrounding tissue

TBlue^® Oral Lesion Marking System

TBlue is a patented, pharmaceutical-grade toluidine blue-based metachromatic dye.  It is used to further evaluate and closely monitor changes in ViziLite-identified lesions.  It has been proposed that living cells will differentially accumulate toluidine blue based on parameters related to metabolic activity.  TBlue , packaged in an easy to use 3-swab system, provides the deep blue staining that allows ViziLite-identified lesions to be seen clearly under normal light.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 25th, 2009 at 11:19 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.