NEWS: Groundbreaking SFU study aims to save lives through early detection of oral cancer

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Groundbreaking SFU study aims to save lives through early detection of oral cancer

 

Blue light allows doctors to distinguish between normal, pre-cancerous or cancerous tissue

 

By Tiffany Crawford, Vancouver SunMay 27, 2011

 

 

 

Dr. Catherine Poh (left) demonstrates how the fluorescence visualization tool works on Balvir Dhadda, with the assistance of study clinical site coordinator Alisa Kami. Oral cancer is the 13th most common cancer of the 23 reported cancers.

Photograph by: Bob Young Graphy, Terry Fox Research Institute, Vancouver Sun

Researchers at Simon Fraser University are embarking on a groundbreaking study that could help save the lives of patients with oral cancer, a deadly disease that afflicts about 3,400 Canadians a year.

Over the past five years, a team of researchers led by Dr. Miriam Rosin, a biomedical physiology and kinesiology professor at SFU, has been testing a new made-in-B.C. device that detects cancer cells in the mouth.

The hand-held fluorescence visualization tool, developed by Dr. Calum MacAulay at the BC Cancer Agency, uses blue light during surgery to distinguish between normal tissue and pre-cancerous or cancerous tissue.

Rosin's team used the device in the mouths of 60 patients with early-stage oral cancer and they discovered patients who were treated using the new device had no recurring cancer.

The problem with treating oral cancer is that the cancer will return in 30 per cent of patients, said Rosin, who is also director of the oral cancer prevention program at the BC Cancer Agency.

This is because often doctors can't see the cancer cells with the naked eye. So surgeons will cut out the apparent disease but if they leave behind any cancerous tissue it can spread.

With the new device, when the blue light is shone on the surface of the tissue, the surgeon can see changes to the biochemistry and structure of the tissue that are associated with cancer.

Researchers believe the device will save lives because doctors will be able to detect any recurring cancers early.

The research has won the SFU scientists a $4.7-million grant from the Terry Fox Research Institute to embark on a clinical trial to test their initial findings. The clinical trial will take place over two years and involve 400 patients at nine health centres across Canada.

The team hopes the trial will provide enough evidence so that the blue-light tool becomes standard practice for treating oral cancer worldwide.

"So far we've had some really promising results where we've seen the recurrence rate coming down," said Rosin.

During the initial research, the patients were divided into two groups.

One group was given the conventional treatment, which just involves the surgeon looking inside the mouth with a normal light and trying to see the cancer, while the other group was given treatment using the blue-light tool.

"What we found was all the recurrence rates were happening in the group that had the conventional treatment," she said.

"This was extremely promising. This situation has been around a long time and there hasn't been a solution so this is a brand new way of approaching how to help patients and surgeons ensure a better outcome for patients."

SFU health scientist and medical anthropologist Kitty Corbett will also be participating in the trial to study how to train doctors to use the device.

Balvir Dhadda, 47, an oral cancer patient who took part in the initial research, believes the new surgical tool may have saved her life.

After she was sent to several different specialists to figure out what was causing a sore on the left side of her tongue, Dhadda was diagnosed with oral cancer. A healthy vegetarian and a non-smoker, Dhadda was shocked and immediately thought her life was over. But after taking part in the study, she said she's been cancer free for four years.

"By shining the blue light in my mouth [an oral specialist] was able to determine what it could possibly be," she said. "Then the equipment aided the surgeon in how much to take out."

She said the tool has also been used at each of her checkups to determine if the cancer has returned.

"They've been very vigilant. I think without this equipment they wouldn't have been able to detect how deep the cancer was and how far it had progressed."

In Canada, oral cancer is the 13th most common cancer of the 23 reported cancers. Last year it killed about 1,150 Canadians.

The five-year survival rate for oral cancer is 63 per cent, compared to 75 per cent for cervical cancer, 89 per cent for melanoma cancers, and 95 per cent for prostate cancer, according to the Canadian Cancer Society.

ticrawford@vancouversun.com

 

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