Nobody knows for sure what triggers this disease , but a lot of studies and statistics have been done and they pointed out some major risk factors that might influence this type of cancer to appear in the case of some patients. Apparently the cancer appears in the weakest part of a person's body and when the entire body is weak due to some factor. This is proven by the incidence of this disease in the case of those people who have suffered from kidney transplant. They do not present any of the risk factors, but they follow a treatment with immunosuppressors that prevent their bodies to reject the new kidney, but at the same time weaken the immune system of their body.
Ok, let's go back to our main topic of discussion now: the cause and effect of oral cancer. The most important cause of oral cancer is tobacco use. More than 90% of the patients diagnosed with oral cancer used tobacco in one form or another. I think it is important to mention that even if they don't smoke tobacco, but chew it or snuff it, the chemicals contained in it affect the mouth and the throat, damage the cells in the tissue of these organs and cause abnormal developments in those cells, turning them into cancer cells.
These chemicals affect the DNA of the cells and lead to a mutation that will be then genetically transmitted to the other generations, so the cancer inheritance will also be transmitted.I guess this is cause and effect enough for me.
The second important cause of oral cancer and which is often used in combination with the first one, making the effect even more devastating is alcohol consumption on a large scale. Statistics say that 75-80% of the patients with oral cancer consume alcohol on a daily basis. And the combination of the two above-mentioned killers increases even more the probability of developing this terrible disease. The effect of alcohol consumption is the fact that the chemicals in the alcohol increase the penetration of the substances that mutate the DNA in the healthy cells and turn them into sick cells.
Then there's the sunlight who can damage your skin and lips if you expose too much to the UV radiation of the sun. This is considered among the strongest causes of lip cancer, which is also a form of oral cancer. HPV infections are also very dangerous, as infection open the gate for a more serious disease to install in the affected organ. People have known this virus of being responsible mainly for such cancer forms like cervical cancer, penis cancer or anal cancer. But it seems like, together with people's increasing preference for oral sex has lead to an equal increase of oral cancers caused by this virus infection. So many doctors recommend anti-HPV vaccine for both women and men.
Some other risk factors may be :chronic irritation of the mouth that can have as effect the weakness of the organ to fight with germs and bacteria, lack of fruits and vegetables in the diet - that is also considered an unhealthy way of life, leading to the incapacity of the human body of fightin the pathogen agents and also age ( people over 40 are more exposed), gender ( men are more likely to develop this disease than women).