Oral Cancer Case Finding Program (OCCFP).

Abstract

The aim of the Oral Cancer Case Finding Program (OCCFP) is to reduce the morbidity and mortality rates of oral cancer in Cuba. This program is based on health education of the whole population and a thorough examination of the oral complex, by specially trained stomatologists, of patients attending every stomatological care centre. Between 1983 and 1990, 10,167,999 such patients were examined country-wide and a total of 30,478 were referred as presenting some sort of alteration; 8259 complied with their referral. In this group, 2367 leucoplakias and 853 other precancerous lesions were diagnosed and treated. These 3220 premalignancies should have some influence on the cancer morbidity rates. Five hundred and eighty-one epidermoid carcinomas and 127 other malignant neoplasms were also detected for a total of 708 malignancies. The effectiveness of this program can be evaluated by the increments in diagnoses of Stage I oral cancer from 22.8% to 48.2% on account of the most advanced stages (II, III and IV) which decreased from 77.2% to 51.8%. The object of this paper is to present the results of OCCFP up to 1990.