Scientists have developed a New Technology to detect Oral Cancer

29 Jan,22 9:30 am
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Detection of Oral Cancer: Scientists from IIT Kharagpur have developed a portable, user-friendly, and non-invasive device for detecting oral cancer in resource-constrained clinical settings.

Key Highlights:

The researchers from the Guru Nanak Institute of Dental Sciences in West Bengal supervised the clinical trials, and have established the efficacy of the new method in differentiating cancerous and precancerous stages of suspected oral abnormalities, as verified by high-standard biopsy reports.

The research has been published recently in the prestigious Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), USA.

About the new technology:

  • This is a low-cost, handheld imaging device.
  • The device screens the cancerous stage by measuring the blood flow rate in the tissues.
  • The blood perfusion imager, which combines a miniature far-infrared camera and a humidity sensor, are electronically controlled and interfaced with a combined physics-based and data-driven software engine.
  • The device has sensors and controllers. The biological data collected by these elements are fed into a computer simulated software engine.
  • The engine classifies pre cancer and cancer cases.

Need for the technology:

  • Cancer of the oral cavity remains one of the major causes of morbidity and mortality in socially-challenged and underserved communities.
  • Around a fifth of the women population suffers from cancer.
  • Also, oral cancer is the high in India which is mainly because of tobacco.
  • In the last decade, the incidence of oral cancer has increased among the young adults and women.
  • There is an 80% chance on average of a five-year survival rate if diagnosed early.
  • The survival rate drops to 65% or less in more advanced stages of the disease.

Efforts by Indian Government:

  • The Government of India (GoI) has set up National Cancer Control Programme.
  • The programme has launched regional cancer centres.

About NPCDCS:

  • NPCDCS is National Programme for Prevention and Control of Cancer, Diabetes, Cardiovascular disease and Stroke.
  • NPCDCS was launched in 2010.
  • The main objective of this programme is strengthening infrastructure, human resource development, health promotion, early diagnosis, management and referral.


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