Date: 20 November 2022 | Time: 13:00-13:45 (GST) | Location: Online Event
Abstract
Oral cancer is the eleventh most prevalent cancer worldwide. The most common oral cancer is oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC), which makes up over 90% of all oral cancers, and if diagnosed early has a five-year survival rate of around 85%. However, the early phase of oral cancer is often asymptomatic, and as most patients seek care only when they experience late-stage symptoms (pain, persistent ulceration, unexplained bleeding, or an oral or neck mass) at which stage the disease is advanced and so the 5-year survival rate decreases as low as 15-50%. Early detection of oral cancer is therefore paramount for improving survival rates and prognosis for patients with the disease. Current diagnostic techniques focus on the detection of malignant and potentially premalignant lesions in the oral cavity. However, subtle lesions may pass undetected, and it is difficult to make a visual distinction between progressing and non-progressing mucosal lesions. This presentation will present our understanding of the aetiology and diagnoses of oral malignant and potentially premalignant lesions and outline our current lab-to-clinic translation of minimally invasive approaches aimed at improving diagnostic precision in oral cavity cancer utilising microRNA and intra-oral confocal microscopy.
Lecture Objectives
- To understand the global incidence of oral cancer
- To clarify emerging causative factors influencing the aetiology of oral cancer
- To be able to differentiate potential malignant oral mucosal disease
- To outline current research on oral mucosal diagnoses
- To demonstrate emerging technologies for early detection of oral cancer
