Lab on a chip ‘could diagnose oral cancer in 20 minutes’

A new piece of technology called ‘lab on a chip’ test could help dentists diagnose oral cancer in 20 minutes.

The laboratory products are used  by collecting cells from a patient’s mouth using a brush and then getting a rapid reading from a desk top computer, Mail Online has reported. Current methods of testing involve doctors and dentists taking a cell reading using a scalpel and sending the results to labs for analysis, which can often be a time-consuming task.

Professor Martin Thornhill from the University of Sheffield, working with researchers from Rice University in the US, is leading a two-year trial which could result in the new technique becoming standard practice at dental clinics.

The lab on a chip is the size of a credit card and uses biological agents and small sensor chips. The card-shaped devices are then slotted into a battery-powered machine which can be kept in dental offices.

Professor Thornhill, Professor of Oral Medicine at the University and Honorary Consultant in Oral Medicine at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals, believes the tests will be implemented in standard practice in three to five years. He told Mail Online: “Usually, these lesions are not cancerous but they need to be investigated and this method would be a much more effective and efficient way of doing that.

“The test can be done in the chair with a miniature tooth brush and the results will be there for you in the waiting room.”

Posted by Ben Evans