Key Indications of Mouth Cancer

Unexpected Weight Loss

Unexpected weight loss is indicative of an individual being affected by mouth cancer. There are numerous ways mouth cancer can cause someone to lose weight unexpectedly. Weight loss occurs when an individual's energy balance shifts from neutral or positive to negative. A negative energy balance means the individual is burning more calories than they are consuming. The mouth, tongue, jaw, throat, and teeth are all vital tissues that play a different role in the mechanism of eating food. When a malignancy in the mouth grows and causes pain or problems with the mechanical aspect of eating food for one or more of these tissues, the patient cannot consume an adequate number of calories. Mouth cancer almost always causes an individual to experience a decrease in appetite. On top of those factors, cancer cells themselves multiply quickly and need calories and nutrients even though they have no functional purpose in the body. Cancer cells can use up a significant portion of calories in addition to the calories being used by the healthy cells of the body. The affected individual is often unable to eat enough to keep up with the caloric and nutritional demand of their body, causing them to experience weight loss.

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