A lollipop to diagnose mouth cancer
Over 12,000 people are diagnosed with mouth and throat cancer every year, in a process that is difficult and painful. Precancerous lesions can be hard to identify, and to test for cancer, doctors must insert a camera through a patient’s mouth or nose, and take biopsies for analysis. University of Birmingham researchers are developing a new test that is less invasive and could save lives.
Dr Ruchi Gupta has been granted £350,000 from Cancer Research UK and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) to create a flavoured lollipop that can speed up diagnosis. It is made from a material called a smart hydrogel, developed by Dr Gupta and her team in the School of Chemistry. When patients suck on the lollipop, the hydrogel absorbs saliva, containing proteins which can indicate the early stages of cancer. Scientists release these caught molecules for analysis in the lab by blasting the hydrogel with UV light.
Currently 62% cases of oral cancer are diagnosed in stage three and four, because the existing techniques are either ineffective or can't be applied to large-scale screening. If we can use proteins in saliva to do more objective detection, while still being minimally invasive, that could make a big difference.
Her team has applied for a patent on the hydrogel technology, which has applications beyond mouth cancer. It could be used for urine tests to detect of other diseases, or even applied outside of clinical diagnostics, in areas such as environmental monitoring.
Enterprise’s Entrepreneur-in-Residence is working with Dr Gupta to explore the technology’s market potential. “That is helping us do market research, to explore what other areas we could use the technology in, and where it could have the most impact,” she says.