Grant: Doctoral Research Award: Canada Graduate Scholarships

Cancers of the mouth are a concern worldwide, and although the devastating impact of these cancers can be prevented or limited by early detection and treatment, long-term survival remains poor. Researchers aim to find ways to catch cancers at an early stage, or for lesions that are not yet cancers, to determine which ones have a greater risk of progression. Potentially cancerous lesions (PCL) that contain greater counts of abnormal cells are known to be at a greater risk of progression. However, predicting the outcome of PCL that contain a low amount of cellular abnormality is challenging, as many of these lesions will not progress, making clinical management difficult. As more is known about how cancer interacts with the immune system, the possibility of using immune factors to predict progression arises. Novel imaging techniques now allow for visualization of cell-to-cell interactions in tissues. This produces valuable information that has been used to predict survival and patient outcome in numerous cancers. No studies have investigated cell-cell spatial relationships between inflammatory cells and PCL in the mouth. Thus, the objective of this study is to apply this imaging technique to analyze the relationship of inflammatory cells and oral PCL to create a risk prediction model for subsequent progression to cancer. If lesions with a greater potential for transition to cancer can be identified, then treatment can be implemented at an earlier stage, ultimately improving patient outcome.