Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, 3rd November 2025
Mouth Cancer Awareness Month (also known as Oral Cancer Awareness Month) is an annual campaign held every November to raise awareness about mouth, head, and neck cancers – their causes, symptoms, prevention, and the importance of early detection.
During Mouth Cancer Action Month, Dr Sam Whitehouse shares how new innovations in early-stage treatments could transform the outlook for people at risk of mouth cancer, and how everyone can take action to check for early signs of disease.
The challenge of mouth cancer awareness
Data from the Mouth Cancer Foundation shows that people’s awareness of the early signs of mouth cancer is incredibly low which I believe can be attributed to a number of different factors.
Compared with some other types of cancer, there’s a real lack of advocacy around mouth, head and neck cancers. I think that’s partly because of the lack of treatment options for mouth cancer in its early stages – something LightOx is working to change, and also because, for those patients who have developed the disease, the later stage treatments can be life-changing.
People often don’t want to talk about it and it’s only the bravest of patients who are willing to highlight the fact they have had part of their tongue removed, for example, or that they may have experienced a change in their appearance. It can be very emotionally difficult and is the reason LightOx works with a lot of charities to learn more about how mouth cancers and treatment affect patients.
The potential impact of treating early-stage disease
The treatment we’re developing is focused on early-stage cancers, pre-cancerous malignancies and oral dysplasias. These can often be the first point at which people might notice white patches or red patches in their mouth, or the point at which your dentist might spot them.
Our treatment can be used on all the tissues in the mouth – the tongue, cheeks, gums, palate, and we hope that, by focusing on this very early stage, we can prevent people from developing mouth cancer at all. Something we would be incredibly proud of!
Our treatment is also a non-surgical option which is designed to be as easily applied in a dentistry setting similar to treating a cavity as it could by specialists in hospitals. The good news is that it can avoid the need for surgery altogether and, for those who’ve already had surgery, it can help avoid recurrence of the cancer.
Most importantly, as a team we have real hope that this treatment will spare many, many people from major surgery and in the process, enhance their quality of life too.
Recognising the early signs of mouth cancers
Early detection of mouth cancer is crucial if we’re to improve survival rates, and there are signs that people can easily be looking for, like red or white patches inside the mouth, swelling, or changes in colour. You can find more details of what to look for on the Mouth Cancer Foundation website.
In short however, the easiest way to check is to look inside your mouth every day when you’re brushing your teeth. And if you are worried about something, go and see your GP or dentist as early as you can.
Mouth cancer, along with skin cancer, is one of the few cancers where the early signs are visible, so it’s something we should all be aware of and looking out for.
Key takeaways for Mouth Cancer Action Month
In summary I hope Mouth Cancer Action Month results in more people being aware of the early signals of disease and proactively checking their mouths at home.
The key messages I want to share during this month are:
- Check your mouth regularly. It’s not difficult to do and could mean you spot early signs before they develop into cancer.
- I also want people to know that early-stage treatments are being developed. Within a few years we hope to put LightOx’s treatment in the hands of clinicians and make it available to patients worldwide. Enhancing lives, survival rates and patient experiences across the globe.
Find out more about Mouth Cancer Action Month, and download information on early signs of the disease, here.
