New move to reduce oral cancer death rate

Only half of oral cancer patients survive for five years after being diagnosed with the disease.

Despite advances in treatment, many people suffer from an advanced and incurable forms of the illness usually because the cancer has invaded surrounding tissue and spread.

Now experts from Sheffield University’s school of clinical dentistry plan to examine how and why the cancer spreads in a project backed by the charity Yorkshire Cancer Research.

They hope the work will enable doctors to predict the patients likely to be affected by the disease spreading and identify strategies to prevent it.

The study will look specifically at how the cancer cells communicate with other cells around them to help the disease to spread.

Dan Lambert, who is leading the project, said: “The processes enabling cancer cells to invade and spread are still not fully understood, but it is known that communication between cancer cells and other cells surrounding them, such as cells called fibroblasts, plays an important role.

“Proteins released by the cancer cells appear to change the levels of certain genes in neighbouring fibroblasts, causing them in turn to change and release proteins which promote cancer cell spread.”

Dr Lambert said a new group of molecules had been recently discovered which change the way cells behave by altering the levels of specific genes. The study would identify changes in the molecules caused by the cancer cells.

“This information will allow us to understand more fully how cancer spreads and possibly lead to developing new ways to prevent it,” he added.

Kathryn Scott, research liaison officer at Yorkshire Cancer Research, said: “Cancers are a lot easier to treat successfully if the spread can be prevented so we are very excited to be funding this world-class project.”