Dr. Grant Wright expressed his appreciation to the Health Foundation for a new laryngoscope, worth $10,800. “The previous scope lasted 20 years and was probably used on 10,000 patients. This scope is still the best way to detect early throat cancer, and the new scope is brighter and clearer and will assist us in detecting throat cancer.”
“The importance of such a scope which we use in the Yorkton ENT screening clinic is increasing with the rapid rise in HPV throat cancer,” said Dr. Wright. “We are now told that 70% of the population will become HPV positive at some time.”
In Canada, the present incidence of HPV throat cancer is now 35/100,000/year. This means as many as 350 new cases will occur in Saskatchewan on a yearly basis. The incidence is now higher than HPV cervical cancer. There is no PAP test, however, to detect premalignant changes in the throat.
The incidence of this type of throat cancer is expected to continue to rise at 3% per year for the next 20 years before vaccination of boys and girls will take effect. In several conferences, which I have been at recently, we were told that it will be around the year 2060 before the beneficial effects of vaccinations will be seen in boys and girls,” said Dr. Wright.
Dr. Wright is an ear, nose and throat specialist and he accepts referrals from family physicians in the area who feel their patients may need to see a specialist. Dr. Wright operates his ENT clinic in Yorkton one week each month and sees approximately 30 to 35 patients a day.
"We are very fortunate that Dr. Wright is willing to travel to Yorkton and operate his ENT clinic. If he were not willing to provide this service patients around this region would have to travel to Regina or Saskatoon to see a specialist. We are grateful to Dr. Wright for the service he provides and were pleased to by the new scope for his clinic,” said Ross Fisher, Executive Director of the Health Foundation.
