DTUS2010

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Wehkamp j.wehkamp@dental-tribune.com Dental Tribune America, LLC 213 West 35th Street, Suite 801 New York, NY 10001 Tel.: (212) 244-7181 Fax: (212) 244-7185 Published by Dental Tribune America © 2010 Dental Tribune America, LLC All rights reserved. Dental Tribune strives to maintain the utmost accuracy in its news and clini- cal reports. If you find a factual error or content that requires clarification, please contact Group Editor Robin Goodman at r.goodman@dental-tribune.com. Dental Tribune cannot assume respon- sibility for the validity of product claims or for typographical errors. The pub- lisher also does not assume responsibility for product names or statements made by advertisers. Opinions expressed by authors are their own and may not reflect those of Dental Tribune America. Dr. Joel Berg Dr. L. Stephen Buchanan Dr. Arnaldo Castellucci Dr. Gorden Christensen Dr. Rella Christensen Dr. William Dickerson Hugh Doherty Dr. James Doundoulakis Dr. David Garber Dr. Fay Goldstep Dr. Howard Glazer Dr. Harold Heymann Dr. Karl Leinfelder Dr. Roger Levin Dr. Carl E. Misch Dr. Dan Nathanson Dr. Chester Redhead Dr. Irwin Smigel Dr. Jon Suzuki Dr. Dennis Tartakow Dr. Dan Ward Editorial Board DENTAL TRIBUNE The World’s Dental Newspaper · US Edition A new test for oral cancer, which a dentist could perform by simply using a brush to collect cells from a patient’s mouth, is set to be devel- oped by researchers at the Univer- sity of Sheffield and Sheffield Teach- ing Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. The international research team, involving scientists in Sheffield, has been awarded $2 million from the United States National Institutes of Health to develop the test, which could provide an accurate diagnosis in less than 20 minutes for lesions where there is a suspicion of oral cancer. The current procedure used to detect oral cancer in a suspicious lesion involves using a scalpel to perform a biopsy and off-site labora- tory tests, which can be time con- suming. The new test will involve removing cells with a brush, placing them on a chip, and inserting the chip into the analyzer, leading to a result in eight to 10 minutes. This new procedure will have a number of benefits, including cutting waiting times and the number of visits, and also cost savings for the National Health Service. The team in Sheffield, led by Prof. Martin Thornhill, in the department of oral medicine at the University of Sheffield and a consultant in oral medicine at Sheffield Teaching Hos- pitals, has begun carrying out clini- cal trials on patients at Charles Clif- ford Dental Hospital for two years to perfect the technology and make it as sensitive as possible. If the trials confirm that the new technology is as effective as carrying out a biopsy, then it could become a regular appli- cation at dental offices in the future. If oral cancer is detected early, the prognosis for patients is excel- lent, with a five-year survival rate of more than 90 percent. Unfortu- nately, many oral cancers are not diagnosed early and the overall sur- vival rate is only about 50 percent, among the lowest rates for all major cancers. The project is being led by Prof. John McDevitt from Rice Uni- versity, who has developed the novel microchip. This new technology uses the lat- est techniques in microchip design, nanotechnology, microfluids, image analysis, pattern recognition and biotechnology to shrink many of the main functions of a state-of-the-art clinical pathology laboratory onto a nano-biochip the size of a credit card. The nano-biochips are dispos- able and slotted like a credit card into a battery-powered analyzer. A brush-biopsy sample is placed on the card and microfluidic circuits wash cells from the sample into the reaction chamber. The cells pass through mini-fluidic channels about the size of small veins and come in contact with “biomarkers” that react only with specific types of diseased cells. The machine uses two LEDs, or light-emitting diodes, to light up News DENTAL TRIBUNE | September 20102A various regions of the cells and cell compartments. Healthy and diseased cells can be distinguished from one another by the way they glow in response to the LEDs. The technology is also being con- sidered for future research projects for diagnosis and management of heart attacks, diabetes and other diseases. Thornhill said: “This new affordable technology will signifi- cantly increase our ability to detect oral cancer in the future. Diagnosis currently involves removing a small piece of tissue from the mouth and sending it to a pathologist. This is typically done at a hospital, can take a week or more and involves extra visits for the patient. “With the new technology, a brush would be used to painlessly remove a few cells from the lining of the mouth that would be analyzed within minutes in the presence of the patient, so that the patient would know the result before leaving the clinic. “This technology will make it easier for us to screen suspicious lesions in the mouth and separate non-cancerous lesions from those where there is a risk of cancer and those where cancer has already developed. We have just started to recruit patients to a study that is designed to ensure that the new technology is at least as good as the old method at distinguishing these different types of lesion. “Ultimately, dentists and doctors may be able to use this technology to check suspicious lesions in the mouth and reassure the vast major- ity of patients that they haven’t got cancer without even having to send them to the hospital.” DT (Source: University of Sheffield) Professor Martin Thornhill (above) of the department of oral medi- cine at the University of Sheffield, England. The battery-powered analyz- er (left) reads disposable nano-biochips that are slotted like credit cards and hold brush biopsies from patients’ mouths in order to detect if the cells are cancerous. (Photos/ Provided by the Univer- sity of Sheffield) New test to detect oral cancer AD