Oral cancer screening approach based on labeling exfoliated oral cells with molecularly-targeted optical contrast agents

Early detection is a potential key to improving the survival rates of oral cancer patients and reducing the morbidity associated with treatment. We seek to improve upon methods of detecting of early malignancies with oral brush biopsies by using immunofluorescence-based assessment of the expression of multiple well-described markers commonly overexpressed in oral cancers, such as Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor (EGFR) and Cytokeratin 8 (CK8). Furthermore, since abnormal cells are often scarce in brush biopsy samples, we seek to use magnetic microparticles targeted to these markers as a means of enriching the concentration of abnormal cells. Finally, we plan to conduct a small pilot study using these methods with brush biopsies from patients of the M. D. Anderson Cancer Center Head and Neck Clinic.