New device ‘can identify mouth cancer signs without need for biopsies’

Researchers have developed a promising new diagnostic tool that could make it easier and more painless to detect early signs of mouth cancer.

Developed by the Biophotonics Research Group at King's College London's Dental Institute, the clinical imaging instrument could help to reduce the need for biopsies, an elaborate, time-consuming and painful process that can put patients off.

This simple portable device allows the host's first response to the tumour to be imaged undisturbed and as it occurs at an extremely high resolution. Moreover, the functional prototype is ready for commercialisation and clinical use.

It has already been used to identify the location of invasive cancers as small as one mm in diameter, allowing minimally invasive surgery to be carried out with only minor residual scarring and deformity.

Dr Richard Cook from King's College London's Dental Institute said: "A device that can help survey suspicious lesions and guide biopsies to more accurately confirm the existence of cancer and its exact location would prove invaluable."

Over the last 40 years, five-year survival figures for mouth cancer have remained static at approximately 50 percent, despite advances in medical techniques. This new device could therefore represent a step forward.