From MayoClinic.com

Oral cancer is a group of abnormal cells that involves the mouth or the oropharynx.
The oropharynx is the part of the throat at the back of the mouth.
Recently, you've noticed a pale lump inside your mouth that doesn't seem to be healing.

Periodic self-examination of your mouth is the best way to detect the early signs. And, when detected early and treated adequately, oral cancer is almost always curable. Unfortunately, more than half of all oral and upper throat cancers are far advanced by the time a doctor is made aware of the situation because the cancers are usually painless in their early stages.

Signs and symptoms

An early indication of oral and throat cancer is one or more changes in the way the soft tissues of your mouth usually look or feel. Signs and symptoms may include:

• A sore in your mouth that doesn't heal or increases in size

• Persistent pain in your mouth

• Lumps or white, red or dark patches inside your mouth

• Thickening of your cheek

• Difficulty chewing or swallowing or moving your tongue

• Difficulty moving your jaw, or swelling or pain in your jaw

• Soreness in your throat or feeling that something is caught in your throat

• Pain around your teeth, or loosening of your teeth

• Numbness of your tongue or elsewhere in your mouth

• Changes in your voice

• A lump in your neck

• Severe pain in one ear with a normal eardrum

Most oral cancers arise on the tongue or on the floor of the mouth. They also may occur inside your cheeks, on your gums or on the roof of your mouth.

Oral and throat cancer > next > 1 > 2 > 3 > 4