Non-smokers much more likely than smokers to develop mouth cancer if they show early warning signs, research shows

The research from the University of British Columbia, published in Oral Oncology, looked at almost 450 patients with precancerous oral lesions and discovered that non-smokers were more than twice as likely to see them develop into mouth cancer than smokers.

In some cases, non-smokers with lesions on the floor of the mouth were a staggering 38 times more likely to develop into cancer than in smokers.

The researchers speculated that the difference between smokers and non-smokers was due to a difference in the root causes of the lesions. In smokers, they were likely the result of environmental factors, whereas in non-smokers, genetic susceptibility or mutations were the probable cause.

Following the release of this startling research, leading health charity, the Oral Health Foundation is calling on everybody to be alert to the early signs of mouth cancer, as catching cases early can have a significant difference in their chances of beating the disease.