Dental News - Multimillion-dollar study on early-stage oral cancer underway

Dental Tribune International

Fri. 3 June 2011

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VANCOUVER, BC, Canada: Researchers from the University of British Columbia’s (UBC) Faculties of Medicine, Science and Dentistry are leading a US$4.7 million pan-Canadian clinical trial aimed at improving outcomes for patients undergoing surgery for oral squamous cell cancers. Findings from the study could revolutionise clinical practice in Canada and around the world.

The Canadian Optically Guided Approach for Oral Lesions Surgical Trial (COOLS Study), which is funded by the Terry Fox Research Institute (TFRI), involves universities and hospitals in nine Canadian cities and aims to build a network of clinicians, pathologists and research staff across the country to fight oral cancer.

“This study will have an immediate impact on practice if it turns out the way we hope,” principal investigator Dr. Miriam Rosin, a senior scientist with the BC Cancer Agency, added. “If the study is successful, it will help to reduce the number of deaths from oral cancer, as well as improve the quality of life for people living with this disease. Working with scientists, we will have this new approach ready to disseminate to the surgical community at large and even globally.”

According to the Canadian Cancer Society, an estimated 3,400 Canadians are diagnosed with oral cancer every year. In 2010, the estimated number of deaths due to oral cancer was 1,150. Currently, about 30 % of patients who receive oral surgery have their cancer recur. The COOLS Study will investigate the effectiveness of fluorescence visualisation (FV), or “blue light” to distinguish between healthy tissue and tumours or pre-cancerous cells in the mouth. Under the blue light, normal tissue generates a fluorescence, which is absent in tumours or pre-cancerous tissue.

“In work we have conducted to date in Vancouver, there has been almost no recurrence where surgery followed the contour of the lesion shown by using FV-guided surgery,” Dr. Catherine Poh, associate professor at the UBC Faculty of Dentistry and a consulting dentist at the Vancouver General Hospital, said. “Working together with surgeons, pathologists, research staff and scientists, this TFRI-funded study will enable us to test the approach on a broader cohort of patients at sites across the country and obtain the evidence required to change current practice.”

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