THERAPEUTICS   I   ORAL CANCER

Oral cancers are the 6th most common cancers worldwide with over 350,000 new cases in 2018.

Oral cancer incidence is globally increasing and is strongly related to age, with the highest incidence rates being in older people. Greater than 2/3rds of those diagnosed are men.
Significant Risk Factors

Although it is not known what causes all oral cancers there are some significant risk factors that increase the chances of developing it.

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SMOKING

More than 60% of mouth & oropharyngeal cancers are caused by smoking.

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DRINKING

Research suggests that around 30% of cancer are caused by drinking alcohol.

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HPV

Around 70% of oropharyngeal cancers are linked to Human Papilloma Virus.

Oral Cavity Cancer

Cost of Care

USA 2018

4,493 dead
24,229 diagnosed
Cost of care 2009 USD per head

$50K-$80K

INDIA 2018

72,616 dead
119,992 diagnosed
Cost of care 2015 USD per head

$3K-$15K

CHINA 2018

14,000 dead
27,700 diagnosed
Cost of care 2009 USD per head

$71 MILLION

CURRENT TREATMENT

Standard first-line treatment in 95% of cases of oral cancer is surgery with a 1 cm safety margin of healthy tissue removed along with the cancerous tissue.

Surgery in most cases will leave the patient with significantly altered appearance and lifelong functional defects include speech impediments, difficulty chewing, swallowing and eating. 2 in 5 will die within 5 years which is a higher mortality rate than prostate or cervical cancers.

Patients report severely compromised quality of life more than 12 months after treatment and therefore, follow-on cancer treatment is necessary, such as chemotherapy and radiation can damage normal cells. This can cause side-effects such as hair loss, mouth sore, and vomiting.

Oral Cancer Treatment Options

Stage 1, UK 2012-15
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Surgery

1cm of healthy tissue removed

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Radiotherapy

Jaw damage, dry mouth

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Chemotherapy

Immune system compromised

Information provided by the World Health Organisation

We are developing therapeutics to target the most common oral cancer using a simple local delivery system that combines diagnostic and therapeutic tools.

This enables early identification of oral squamous cell carcinoma and instant treatment by inducing apoptosis (natural cell death) of the selected cells and tissues with minimal damage to healthy cells.
Our Solution
IMAGING PROBES

Probes

A Unique Range of Molecular Tools for use in Imaging, Therapeutics and Assay Development.
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RESEARCH TOOLS

PhotoReact

The PhotoReact 365nm is versatile and compliments LightOx’s range of probes already available through Merck.
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