Mouth cancer—killer of 255 people in the New Orleans area since 1957—is now the target of a new citywide detection system.
Dr. Paul Cook, chief of the dental section of the Louisiana State Board of Health, said Thursday that early diagnosis and treatment could have prevented many of the 255 deaths.
Dr. James R. Strain, president of the board, said the detection program will be extended throughout the state within the next two years.
Mouth cancer, Dr. Cook said, can be located by examining scraping from a patient's mouth under a microscope.
This state, he said, is one of the half-dozen states to undertake the program so far.
The detection program was planned by Louisiana's dentists, with the cooperation of the state board of health, department of pathology of Charity Hospital, Loyola University School of Dentistry, Louisiana State Uni-yersity Scfiool _of_ Medicine, the U.S. Public Health Service and practicing physicians and path-ologists..
