Grant: Project Grant - PA: MSK/Skin/Oral Health: Clinical Research - Oral Health

Oral cancer is a deadly disease with 1 in 2 patients dying within 5 years after diagnosis. The only way to reduce the number of oral cancers and the harm endured by patients from the current treatment is to identify the lesions that have a high likelihood to become cancer and treat them early before they become cancer. The long-term goal of this project is not only to identify the characteristics of these pre-cancerous lesions, but to also find a better way to manage/treat them. In our proposed plan, we will be using four of the best currently available technologies to examine cancer-related changes at both genetic and cell morphology levels. This will be performed on normal, pre-cancerous and cancerous tissues collected from the same patient in order to find changes that are present in the precancerous and cancerous cells but not in normal cells. We then use these identified changes to create a test that can analyze small biopsy samples taken from suspicious changes in the mouth and tell us if there is a high chance for them to become cancer in less than 3 years. We will also be able to identify slow growing lesions that we can manage differently by using less harmful ways. We are confident that our team of leaders in oral cancer studies and these new technologies can analyze the large amount of precancerous and cancerous tissues in our collection of samples that are uniquely to the world. For the first time in decades, we have the opportunity to study and explain the biology behind oral cancer from its precancerous stage through the application of the best DNA technologies. This will allow us to realize our proposed plan to find solutions that clinicians can use for delivering effective and appropriate treatment, ultimately benefiting patients.