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Cancer Is A Serious Public Health Issue Worldwide

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INTRODUCTION
Cancer is a serious public health issue worldwide, due to its increasing prevalence. Annually there are more than eight million new cases of cancer in the world, however there has been significant progress in the treatment methods. Of the total cases, around 40% of patients will receive curative benefit from surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, or a combination modality (1). The choice of cancer treatment will depend on its location, extent, relationship with neighboring anatomical structures, involvement of the lymphatic chain and physical condition of the patient.
According to Irish et al. (2006), 5% of all newly diagnosed cancers are malignant tumors of the head and neck. Radiotherapy is one of the most used therapeutic modalities to treat this type of cancer and may be associated or not with surgery or chemotherapy. However, despite the radiotherapy achieve only cancer cells target, it can cause harmful side effects in normal cells of the irradiated zone, affecting the quality of life of the patient or even changing the evolution of the treatment itself. The main side effects resulting from radiotherapy in the oral cavity occur in the skin, mucosa, bone, salivary glands and teeth, and some of the most frequent complications include xerostomia, mucositis, dysphagia, candidiasis, among others. Thus, the dentist has a key role in the multidisciplinary team of cancer treatment, helping to minimize the frequency and the morbidity of the complications from the

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