Oral Cancer Early Detection Program

In Portugal, oral cancer is the 5th cause of death from malignancy and the key to success is the timely intervention. In 2014 a project named PIPCO - Early Intervention Program in Oral Cancer was implemented. This research intended to characterize the medical consultations at Family Care Unit of Fiães, from March 2014 to April 2017, when the problem "D20-Sign/symptom of mouth/tongue/lips" (according to the ICPC-2) was codified in the diagnosis, with respect to consultation motive(s), diagnosed problem(s) and procedure(s). And also characterize the situations in which a dental check was issued under PIPCO. This descriptive retrospective observational study included 168 consultations. The reasons for consultation were mostly complaints about the mouth/tongue/lip and the remaining were about gums, jaw, throat and others. The PIPCO checks were emitted in 28 consultations, 25% of them due to caries/gingivitis and 21,4% to leukoplakias. The PIPCO check emission was lower than expected and some were wrongly prescribed in the absence of suspicious lesions. There's a need to improve the professionals knowledge about this program, that well-used might lead to significant health gains.