Tackling oral cancer through non-invasive early detection technology
When we Australians notice a mole on our skin start to change, we are likely get it checked out. But what early warning signs do we have for oral cancer? The truth is, there are signs but very few symptoms in the early stages of the cancer. We know something is not right but if it doesn’t hurt, or bleed, or stop us from eating, we ignore it! That’s why developing early detection screening and encouraging people to get checked when something doesn’t look right, is so important.
As my clinical origins include oral surgery, I am a huge advocate for finding novel methods for early detection of oral cancer and simple methods for ongoing surveillance. Screening is absolutely essential. If caught in the late stages, oral cancer can have a devastating impact on a person’s life. Removing cancer from the mouth and tongue can impact a person’s speech, ability to swallow and eat, how they look, and ultimately, their self-esteem. Most important, it can cost you your life – five-year survival with a late stage diagnosis is very low.
Currently, only 29% of oral carcinomas are detected in the early stages of the disease. To make matters worse, the situation has not changed, with survival showing only modest improvement, over the last three decades. The global situation is now more critical than ever, with incidence at 300,000 new cases diagnosed per year, and the number of associated deaths, 145,000 per annum. You have to ask how many people are out there undiagnosed at any moment in time? Potentially ten times this number.
To help combat this problem, I have been assisting a Melbourne-based company called OptiScan Imaging to facilitate early diagnosis of oral cancer with simple and quick non-invasive screening. As their clinical marketing strategy advisor, I am helping them to be ‘business ready’ for a projected USA launch in late 2021. Commencing with Competitive Positioning Literature Review, I have found the facts to identify trends that suggest commercial viability for Optiscan’s technology. If rolled out to surgeons, this could have an enormous positive impact on oral cancer patients.
Optiscan is developing a state-of-the-art confocal laser endomicroscope, the InVivage™. The technology will enable real-time imaging of oral lesions at a cellular level, providing instant evaluation and offering the essential solution of oral cancer screening. Optiscan technology is also being used to develop software to comprehensively record an annotated ‘map’ of a patient’s mouth, which would enable comparison against a patient’s ‘mouth map’ the next time they come in to assess any changes. The Mouthmap™ is an initiative of the Melbourne Dental Hospital and has the potential to establish a new standard of diagnosis that will allow the advancement of both human and computer algorithm-based learning.
The journey to commercialisation in the medical industry is rarely a short or fast one, so I commend Optiscan’s commitment, efforts and contribution to our industry and patient care.
Their next step is to focus the business and the InVivage™ device to advance oral cancer early stage screening and hopefully change the standard of care. If successful, this technology will help to reduce the human suffering resulting from late diagnosed oral carcinoma in the future, allowing for a more comprehensive assessment of changes in the mouth and earlier detection of oral cancer.