„Dentistry 2013” – Conference of the Stomatology Committee of the Polish Chamber of Physicians and Dentists is an another initiative – after the ‘Week of head and neck tumors’ prophylaxis’ – continuing the activities initiated by the Debate of the scientists and journalists organized by the Polish Academy of Sciences in April this year. The Debate had been organized on the initiative of the National Consultant in Otorhinolaryngology, Prof. Henryk Skarżyński, in collaboration with Prof. Wojciech Golusiński – the initiator of the ‘Nationwide Program of Head and Neck Tumors’ Prophylaxis’.

The Conference took place on 17 October 2013. It addressed issues of epidemiology and treatment of patients with head and neck tumors and demonstrated, how important role in prophylaxis and early detection of tumors can, and should play the dentist. Dental room if often undervalued in terms of possibility of conducting screening tests and examinations. Stomatologist’s role is not only to satisfy patient’s current stomatological needs such as prevention and treatment. Visit in a dental room is an opportunity to detect many other health problems, as a large number of constitutional diseases manifests also in the mouth and can be observed during dental consultation.

Prof. Henryk Skarżyński – the National Consultant in Otorhinolaryngology, Chairman of the Committee on Clinical Sciences of the Polish Academy of Sciences and member of the Polish Supreme Chamber of Physicians and Dentists cautions that the common feature of head and neck tumors is relatively long, asymptomatic progress and uncharacteristic early symptoms. These factors hamper early diagnosis and proper treatment.

Prof. Wojciech Golusiński, President of the Polish Study Group of Head and Neck Cancer admits that treatment results of this group of patients are highly unsatisfactory at the level of 50% of the five-year survival rate. Discussing the first ‘Nationwide Program of Head and Neck Tumors’ Prophylaxis’ he emphasized that diagnosis and treatment of head and neck tumors is very difficult due to the fact that this region of the body is very vascularized and innervated. In contains five sensory organs characterized by numerous small anatomical spaces in which a tumor may grow. Prof. Golusiński remarked that Poland, compared to other EU member states, cannot boast any good results of treatment of this group of patients. – This is why we undertook the attempt of introducing in Poland the National Reference Program, coordinated by the Polish Study Group of Head and Neck Cancer. This unique on the European scale program is aimed at raising the awareness of the Polish society regarding the early symptoms, diagnosis and treatment of the head and neck tumors. – he underscores. Prof. Golusiński assures that we can defeat these tumors through systematic and determined campaign: – We are convinced that it will bring positive results. The most important, beside the financial resources, are people involved in the program – presently we have managed to appoint  in 16 centers regional coordinators of the Program of Head and Neck Tumors’ Prophylaxis, who will promote this program in their regions and raise the awareness of highly specialized centers as places where one can obtain help and treatment.

Prof. Henryk Skarżyński explains: – Head and neck tumors involve several basic locations such as nose and paranasal sinuses, mouth, larynx and nasopharynx, parotids and thyroid. Presently in the world we register more than 600 thousand new cases of these regions. Majority, more than 260 thousand, are the oral cancers. This unfavorable epidemiological situation is exacerbated by the treatability rate – following the data of the Sloan-Kettering Cancer Centre in New York, treatability of the head and neck tumors is about 50%. Oral cancer cases constitute about 1.6% of all incidence of tumors. Morbidity in Poland is estimated at 4.16 thousand for 100 thousand of inhabitants and mortality at 1.83 for 100 thousand inhabitants. Morbidity and mortality increase with age. As many as 65% of cases are in 5th and 6th decade of life. It must be underscored that the risk of mouth and lip cancer is exacerbated by tobacco, marihuana, alcohol, poor oral hygiene, HPV, HIV, HSV, EBV infections, genetic factors and late identification of precancerous conditions.

Also Prof. Tomasz Konopka   admits that the epidemiological situation if the oral cancer in Poland is unfavorable: – We still observe that patients report for specialist treatment late, which results in worse five-year survival rate of patients with this type of cancer.

Summarizing the meeting, Prof. Skarżyński invited all participating National Consultants to prepare together the program of prophylactic examinations to be presented to the Ministry of Education.

Such conferences are organized for physicians and dentists to discuss on this forum the treatment and prophylaxis needs and health problems of our patients. The public dimension of the conference is to show to the entire society that a visit in the dental room is a chance to detect many health problems. This year in the conference participated more than 50 Polish dentists, otorhinolaryngologists and oral and maxillofacial surgeons.