Grant: Doctoral Award - Frederick Banting and Charles Best Canada Graduate Scholarships

Oral premalignant lesions are at risk of progressing to oral cancer. However, not all will progress to cancer, and predicting which low-grade lesions, which represent the majority of these lesions, are at risk of progression is challenging. Current treatment is based on a one-time biopsy rather than the long-term features of the lesion. There has been a call for studies that integrate both molecular and clinical variables, over a period of time, in order to further our understanding of cancer development and to identify those who would benefit the most from screening and treatment. A research group in British Columbia has developed the only validated molecular marker for progression, which categorizes low-grade lesions into groups at low, medium, and high-risk for progression. However, further refinement is required to improve risk prediction for those in the moderate and low-risk groups to reduce the number of individuals with aggressive advanced stage disease. This project looks at the clinical features of lesions with various molecular risks patterns, over time, to see if these changes can improve the prediction model. These results will aid clinicians in assessing risk and will inform patient management. The search for additional markers for the progression to cancer is important and has the potential to have an impact on the prevention, screening, diagnosis and treatment of this disease.