Oral cancer
The Institute has established the largest Oral Cancer Research Group in the UK, and has been an area of major investment for the Institute. Head and neck carcinoma is the sixth most common cancer worldwide and a significant public health issue in our local population in East London where Asian men have a 4 fold greater risk of developing oral cancer than the UK general population. The Oral Cancer research group aims to address some of these issues both through public health and clinical research programs together with a major drive to understanding aspects of the biology of this condition.
The NHS has supported longstanding research and implementation programs in tobacco cessation including programs addressed specifically at the unique public health issues in our locality. The research provides a demonstrable practical impact on health service delivery whilst addressing the most important area of risk factor management in both primary care and specialist dental practice. A key development has been the launch in 2006/7 of a CRUK-sponsored oral cancer awareness (and screening program in the local population, providing a community based surveillance service for early detection of oral cancer and subsequent patient pathway to treatment in the Dental Hospital in Whitechapel.
Within our laboratories our priorities are the elucidation of cellular processes associated with the early development of malignancy; the identification of changes of diagnostic significance; determination of the mechanisms of local and distant spread of malignant cells and, by understanding the mechanisms by which malignant cells evade killing, the design of more effective therapeutic regimes. The early identification of oral cancer could have a great health economic impact if achieved and Dentists would have a large role in this. We are currently working on non-invasive biochemical and optical techniques to achieve this.
Research programmes
Programme in Keratinocyte Biology
Academic Staff
Professor Ian Mackenzie