London: Britain’s National Health Service (NHS) on Saturday announced a new partnership with supermarkets to raise awareness of the symptoms of oral cancer through labels on bottles of toothpaste and mouthwash, media reported.

From July, Asda oral hygiene products in more than 500 stores across the country will come with NHS advice on symptoms to look out for, news agency PTI reports.

Millions of toothpaste tubes and mouthwash bottles mean people are contacting their GP or dentist when they notice worrying symptoms.

The state-funded health service in England said the partnership with Asda aims to raise awareness of symptoms that could indicate cancer, such as an ulcer that lasts for three weeks or more.

Symptoms of oral cancer include a white or red patch in the mouth that does not heal within three weeks, a lump or swelling in the mouth, jaw, or neck that lasts more than three weeks, and difficulty swallowing, chewing, or moving the jaw or tongue.

Other symptoms may include numbness of the tongue or other parts of the mouth, a feeling that something is stuck in the throat, chronic sore throat or hoarseness that lasts more than six weeks, and unexplained loosening of teeth.

According to figures from the Mouth Cancer Foundation, mouth cancer is the eighth most common cancer in the UK, with more than 11,700 new cases diagnosed each year. The disease is twice as common in men as in women, and almost 80% of cases occur in people over the age of 55.

The new NHS partnership, launched to mark World Head and Neck Cancer Day on 27 July, includes an initiative to encourage young people to get vaccinated against HPV, which could help reduce the risk of cancers caused by HPV, including oral cancer.

The vaccine is offered by the NHS to all children aged 12 to 13 and is also available free of charge to all girls and women under 25 and boys born after September 2006.

According to NHS England, the incidence of head and neck cancer in the country has increased by more than 60% in recent decades. The biggest increase in developed countries has been in cancer of the oral cavity, which has one of the lowest five-year survival rates.