Health and geology experts work together to improve early detection of oral cancer

Oral cancer is a growing health problem that has seen little improvement in survival rates, mainly because of late diagnosis when the disease has progressed beyond a cure.

One of the main challenges clinicians face is the lack of ways to reliably predict malignant changes in oral potentially malignant disorders (OPMDs), which carry a higher risk of developing into cancer.

The researchers will use techniques typically used in geological and material science to develop methods that can detect disease progression to help identify patients at early stages when the potential of a cure is more likely.

Funded by Cancer Research UK, the multidisciplinary team from the University of Aberdeen, including Dr Rasha Abu-Eid of the Institute of Dentistry, Professor Valerie Speirs from the Institute of Medical Sciences, and Dr Dave Muirhead, head of the School of Geosciences, will work with specialists around the world including Professor WM Tilakaratne and T.G Kallarakkal from the University of Malaya in Malaysia, Professor BSMS Siriwardena from the University of Peradeniya in Sri Lanka and Professor J James from Queen’s University Belfast, Northern Ireland.