Published on 15 March 2023
Liverpool researchers have been given funding to develop a new tool to improve the diagnosis of oral cancer.
The grant from the National Institute of Health Research is worth £534,000 and will be used by researchers in the University of Liverpool, Department of Physics, working with Liverpool Head and Neck Centre.
They want to develop the Liverpool Diagnostic Infrared Wand, a hand-held tool which can quickly and accurately identify lesions in a patient’s mouth that will develop into cancer.
Identifying lesions which will turn cancerous is difficult at the moment, despite more than 12,000 people developing oral cancer each year.
Professor Richard Shaw, of Liverpool Head and Neck Centre, said: “This instrument addresses a difficult clinical problem in head and neck cancer diagnosis.
“We know that earlier diagnosis is key to saving lives, but predicting cancer risk in oral patches is problematic.
“For some patients we miss a high risk of cancer developing, but for other patients we cannot safely reassure them without better information.”
Read the full story here: https://news.liverpool.ac.uk/2023/02/16/physicists-awarded-534k-nihr-funding-to-develop-new-oral-cancer-diagnosis-instrument/