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Oral cancer is one of the most prevalent cancers globally, characterized by high rates of recurrence and metastasis, making early diagnosis crucial for improving patient survival. Accurate preoperative tumor-node-metastasis (TNM) staging is essential for determining effective treatment plans and surgical strategies. Although pathological examination remains the gold standard for TNM staging of oral cancer, imaging data can complement pathology, helping clinicians make more precise preoperative assessments and addressing the limitations of single-modality approaches. In this study, we propose a novel multimodal model for oral cancer staging that integrates preoperative CT images and whole-slide imaging (WSI). To overcome the heterogeneity between CT and WSI features, especially the lack of interaction between macrolevel CT features and microlevel pathological features, we introduce a CT-guided collaborative attention module. Specifically, CT features serve as queries, while patches of WSI are treated as key-value pairs. The corresponding keys are computed through a fully connected layer with trainable weights. The model architecture includes two separate pathways for feature extraction: CT features are extracted using a U-Net-based network, while WSI features are extracted with a multi-instance network utilizing a hierarchical attention mechanism. The CT-guided collaborative attention module facilitates interaction and fusion between these two modalities, resulting in a unified feature representation. This fused feature is then passed through a fully connected layer to produce the final TNM staging prediction for oral cancer. By combining both macro- and microlevel features, our model addresses the limitations of traditional single-modality methods, enabling more accurate tumor boundary delineation. Compared to existing techniques, our multimodal approach improves diagnostic accuracy and provides more reliable staging results. This advancement has the potential to significantly enhance early diagnosis and treatment strategies for oral cancer, offering a more comprehensive and precise method for staging the disease.

Fluctuations of the concentration levels of trace elements play an egregious role in enhancing carcinogenic effect in healthy persons and in the pathogenesis of oral malignancies. Epidemiological studies regarding the role of external carcinogenic agents in oral cancer have documented the involvement of certain trace elements either directly or indirectly. An analysis of trace elements like K, Ca, Fe, Cu, Zn, Se And Pb was done in seventeen oral cancer patients having tobacco habits by drawing their whole blood and determining their concentrations using Energy Dispersive X-ray Fluorescence (EDXRF) spectroscopic technique at Institute of Physics. Bhubaneswar, India which is rapid, efficient, multi-elemental and non-destructive in nature and in principle sensitive to all elements from Na to U. Fifteen healthy non-cancerous persons with tobacco habits were also taken as control. The results of the study group when compared with the control group illustrated that K, Cu and Se concentrations were significantly higher in the oral cancer patients as an effect of deleterious tobacco upon their blood whereas the rest of the elements like Ca, Zn, Fe and Pb did not reveal significant changes.

Oral cancer is a common malignancy associated with high morbidity and mortality. While p38 MAPK is reported to be involved in different cellular activities such as proliferation and differentiation, reports rarely define the roles of the individual members of the p38 MAPK family in cancer. We used two unique cell lines developed by our lab representing chemically induced oral cancer cells (T28) and non-tumor cells (N28) obtained from tissues surrounding the induced cancer as a model to screen out whether p38 MAPK is involved in the malignant transformation processes. The results suggest an association between p38β not p38α and oral cancer development. Additionally, the anti-cancer activity of thymoquinone (TQ) was screened out and we found evidences suggesting that the anti-tumor activity of TQ may be attributed to the downregulation of p38β MAPK.

Numerous studies support the use of herbal medicine or natural products for chemotherapy in human cancers. Reports have associated curcumin (CUR), dimethoxy curcumin (DMC) and bisdemethoxycurcumin (BDMC) with numerous biological activities including anticancer activities, but no available information have shown that these induced apoptotic cell death and autophagy in human oral cancer cells. In the present study, we investigated the effect of CUR, DMC and BDMC on the cell viability, apoptotic cell death, reactive oxygen species (ROS), Ca${}^{2+}$, mitochondria membrane potential (MMP) and caspase activities using flow cytometry assay and autophagy by monodansylcadaverine (MDC) and acridine orange (AO) staining in human oral cancer SAS cells. Results indicated that CUR, DMC and BDMC decreased total viable cell number through the induction of cell autophagy and apoptosis in SAS cells. Cells were pretreated with N-acetyl-cysteine (NAC), 3-methyladenine (3MA), rapamycin and carbobenzoxy-valyl-alanyl-aspartyl-[O-methyl]-fluoro-methylketone (Z-VAD-fmk) and then were treated with CUR, DMC and BDMC that led to increased total viable cell number when compared to CUR, DMC and BDMC treatments only. Results indicated induced apoptotic cell death through ROS, mitochondria-dependent pathway and induction of cell autophagy. Based on those observations, we suggest that CUR, DMC and BDMC could be used as a potential anticancer agent in human oral cancer.

Human oral squamous cell carcinomas (OSCCs) have high cancer mortality and a 5-year survival rate lower than that of most other carcinomas. New therapeutic strategies are required for the treatment and prevention against OSCCs. An approach to cancer therapy using plant-derived natural compounds has been actively in progress as a trend. Falcarindiol (FALC), or its isolated form Ostericum koreanum Kitagawa (O. koreanum), is present in many food and dietary plants, especially in carrots, and this compound has a variety of beneficial effects. However, biological activity of FALC has not been reported in OSCCs yet. This study aimed to demonstrate the antitumor effects of FALC against OSCCs, YD-10B cells. In this study, FALC was selected as a result of screening for compounds isolated from various natural products in YD-10B cells. FALC suppressed cell growth, and FALC-induced apoptotic cell death was mainly accompanied by the dephosphorylation of PI3K, AKT, mTOR, and p70S6K. The apoptotic cell death was also associated with autophagy as evidenced by the expression of Beclin-1, the conversion of LC3-II, and the formation of autophagosome. FALC-induced autophagy was accompanied by MAPKs including ERK1/2 and p38. Furthermore, FALC caused the antimetastatic effects by inhibiting the migration and invasion of YD-10B cells. Taken together, the findings suggest the potential value of FALC as a novel candidate for therapeutic strategy against OSCCs.

Asia-Pacific, the rising region for cancer vaccine clinical trials.

Non-small cell lung cancer has largest number of clinical trials in Australia.

Global dermatology pipeline to see shift towards increased usage of biologics.

FDA approves first 0.1 mg auto-injector for life-threatening allergic reactions in infants and small children.

FDA approves first two-drug regimen for certain patients with HIV.

New early-breast cancer drug to be made available in Australia, New Zealand and South-East Asia.

Multi-omic data analytics collaboration between the University of Oxford and Holmusk.

NRGene’s genomic analysis project with Monsanto advances.

Samsung BioLogics receives first FDA approval at world’s largest plant.

TLC welcomes Mayor of Leiden and delegation to Taipei headquarter.

Warren Wang appointed senior vice president and president of Asia Pacific of Boston Scientific.

MiRXES reveals globalisation plans for 2018 and 2019.

QuintilesIMS is now IQVIA.

Quotient Sciences launches as the new global identity for Quotient Clinical.

ESMO Asia 2017 Congress.

More care is needed for cancer supportive care.

ALEX study shows alectinib 600 mg more effective than crizotinib in Asian lung cancer patients.

Study analyses mutations in cerebrospinal fluid in lung cancer with brain metastases.

Study finds all Myanmar mouth cancer patients chew betel quid.

Worldwide, oral cancer is the sixth most common cancer for both sexes. In Singapore, the 5-year survival rate of oral cancer is about 50%. The high mortality rate has been attributed to the difficulties in detecting the disease in an early treatable stage. Here, we present two application examples of gold nanoparticles in the early detection of oral cancer. In the first, gold nanoparticles were used as a reflective contrast agent for performing molecular imaging under confocal reflectance microscopy for the early diagnosis of epithelial carcinoma. While in the second, closely-packed gold nanoparticle, films were used as a bio-sensing surface for the chemical analysis of saliva via Surface Enhanced Raman Scattering. Preliminary results will be discussed.

Late detection of oral/laryngeal cancers or squamous cell carcinoma results in high patient mortality. Therefore, the detection of early-stage disease symptoms and timely medical treatment are important for improving long-term survival rates. Here, three deep learning models (single-shot detector, Yolo V4 and Tiny Yolo) were developed for target detection and binary type classification (normal/suspicious) for four representative oral/laryngeal regions (tongue, epiglottis, vocal cords, and tonsils) with a single-inspection process. The model performance was evaluated quantitatively on desktop and embedded platforms. We collected 1,632 endoscopic still-images and 20 diagnostic videos from the hospital database to train, validate, and test the models. Experimental results demonstrated that implemented models showed F1-scores ranging between 0.74–0.86, 0.86–1.00, and 0.74–0.87, and average precision ranging between 0.60–0.82, 0.92–1.00, and 0.72–0.98 for the tongue, epiglottis, and vocal cords, respectively, on the desktop platform. In addition, the Yolo V4 model showed performances of 0.92, 0.82, and 2.00 frames per second for the F1-score, average precision, and inference speed, respectively, on the embedded platform. Based on these results, we conclude that the implemented deep-learning-based at-home self-prescreening technique may be a reliable tool for personal oral/laryngeal healthcare, which will be especially important in endemic situations.

Photodynamic methods have found application not only in the treatment process as photodynamic therapy but also for the early detection of neoplastic lesions and tumors as photodynamic diagnosis. Early detection of the disease allows not only to avoid the patient’s lifetime risk but also significantly reduce the costs of anticancer therapy, which are increasing every year. There is a constant search for new and more effective photosensitizers which will provide safety in therapy while maintaining efficiency. This paper summarizes recent reports focused on the photodynamic diagnosis of oral cancers. Moreover, it shows methods of the photodynamic treatment of oral verrucous hyperplasia, erythroleukoplakia, and oral leukoplakia. The treatment of choice for these diseases is a surgical excision, which always leads to scar formation. Photodynamic therapy provides a new scar-less tool for the treatment.

The modern era of photodynamic therapy (PDT) treatment of human cancer began in earnest in 1978, with the publication by Dougherty et al. of the first large series of humans with refractory or recurrent skin cancers successfully treated with PDT using HpD (Photofrin). The first human series of head and neck cancer patients successfully treated with PDT (Photofrin) was published in 1985, by Keller et al. Since that time, numerous clinical investigators around the world have treated thousands of head and neck cancer patients with PDT in clinical trials. These head and neck cancer PDT clinical trials enrolled patients with various stages of disease, and locations of the tumor and were treated using a variety of photosensitizers. Head and neck cancer PDT treatments were performed as the primary treatment with the intent to cure, as a late-stage treatment for palliation of the tumor, or as an adjuvant or neoadjuvant treatment in combination with surgery, radiation, chemotherapy and most recently immunotherapy. Over the past five decades, head and neck cancer PDT has evolved as newer and more targeted photosensitizers became available for clinical use, as well as advances in laser and fiberoptic technologies allowing for the activating light to be successfully and more easily delivered deep into large invasive tumors. In addition, PDT can be accurately delivered using endoscopic, robotic, CT, ultrasound and MRI guidance thereby specifically targeting the tumor and reducing treatment morbidity. Significant progress has been achieved in the ease of use and treatment efficacy of head and neck cancer PDT in various stages of the disease.

Oral cancers suffer from poor disease-free survival rates due to delayed diagnosis. Noninvasive, rapid, objective approaches as adjuncts to visual inspection can help in better management of oral cancers. Raman spectroscopy (RS) has shown potential in identification of oral premalignant and malignant conditions and also in the detection of early cancer changes like cancer-field-effects (CFE) at buccal mucosa subsite. Anatomic differences between different oral subsites have also been reported using RS. In this study, anatomical differences between subsites and their possible influence on healthy vs pathological classification were evaluated on 85 oral cancer and 72 healthy subjects. Spectra were acquired from buccal mucosa, lip and tongue in healthy, contralateral (internal healthy control), premalignant and cancer conditions using fiber-optic Raman spectrometer. Mean spectra indicate predominance of lipids in healthy buccal mucosa, contribution of both lipids and proteins in lip while major dominance of protein in tongue spectra. From healthy to tumor, changes in protein secondary-structure, DNA and heme-related features were observed. Principal component linear discriminant analysis (PC-LDA) followed by leave-one-out-cross-validation (LOOCV) was used for data analysis. Findings indicate buccal mucosa and tongue are distinct entities, while lip misclassifies with both these subsites. Additionally, the diagnostic algorithm for individual subsites gave improved classification efficiencies with respect to the pooled subsites model. However, as the pooled subsites model yielded 98% specificity and 100% sensitivity, this model may be more useful for preliminary screening applications. Large-scale validation studies are a pre-requisite before envisaging future clinical applications.

Photodynamic methods have found application not only in the treatment process as photodynamic therapy but also for the early detection of neoplastic lesions and tumors as photodynamic diagnosis. Early detection of the disease allows not only to avoid the patient’s lifetime risk but also significantly reduce the costs of anticancer therapy, which are increasing every year. There is a constant search for new and more effective photosensitizers which will provide safety in therapy while maintaining efficiency. This paper summarizes recent reports focused on the photodynamic diagnosis of oral cancers. Moreover, it shows methods of the photodynamic treatment of oral verrucous hyperplasia, erythroleukoplakia, and oral leukoplakia. The treatment of choice for these diseases is a surgical excision, which always leads to scar formation. Photodynamic therapy provides a new scar-less tool for the treatment.