Singapore and India sign landmark MOU to study head and neck cancers.
Monday, 29 May 2006

Singapore, 29 May 2006 - To launch collaboration in biomedical research, National Cancer Centre Singapore (NCCS) signs an MOU with two premier research centres – the Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology and Regional Cancer Centre both based in Thiruvananthapuram, India.

Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology is the premier national centre of excellence in biomedical research in India. The Regional Cancer Centre from Thiruvananthapuram is the largest cancer centre in South India seeing the largest number of cancer cases. It is hoped that this strategic move will enhance research into head and neck cancers significantly.

“This MOU will be an opportunity to tap into each centres’ expertise and learn from one another. In research we need multi-centre collaboration with premier international centres to validate our findings, “ said Prof Soo Khee Chee, Director, NCCS

The incidence of mouth and larynx cancers is among the top 4 cancers that affect Singaporean Indian men. In India, it is the number one cancer. This research would provide insight that oncologists believe would significantly improve insight and treatment of head and neck cancer patients.

Three areas of research that will be embarked on include:

1. Research to improve the prognosis of early stage head and neck cancer

Those with oral cancers have a better chance of survival if their cancers are detected early. Despite this, about 20-30% of early stage oral cancers still present with tumour recurrence and treatment failure. This collaboration aims to identify the factors contributing to optimal treatment response. This will in turn enable clinicians to modify current treatment protocols to enhance survival rates.

2. Identifying the risk factors for oral cancer in young patients

Oral cancers are often associated with the elderly with a long history of betel nut, tobacco and alcohol abuse. However we have a significant proportion of oral cancers that present in young patients with little or no exposure to these substances. This study will investigate the genetic make up of young oral cancer patients. This is crucial to understanding the cause of this disease.

3. Identification of novel drug therapies for those with advanced oral cancer

With the rapid advancement in technology, this research aims to identify to producing better biomarkers that predict tumour response to novel drugs. These analyses are crucial to promoting the understanding of different head and neck cancers. More importantly the data can be used to design customised therapy for individual patients.

About Oral Cancers

Oral cancer includes cancer of the lips, mouth, tongue, gums and salivary glands. Throat cancer involves cancer of the part of the throat just behind the mouth. Periodic self-examination of your mouth is the best way to detect the early signs of oral cancer. When detected early, there is a high chance of treating it successfully. Unfortunately, by the time a doctor is made aware of the situation many oral and upper throat cancers are in an advanced stage. This is because oral and throat cancers are usually painless in their early stages.

Signs and symptoms

An early indication of oral and throat cancer is one or more changes in the way the soft tissues of your mouth usually look or feel. Signs and symptoms may include:

• A sore in your mouth that doesn't heal or increases in size
• Persistent pain in your mouth
• Lumps or white, red or dark patches inside your mouth
• Thickening of your cheek
• Difficulty chewing or swallowing or moving your tongue
• Difficulty moving your jaw, or swelling or pain in your jaw
• Soreness in your throat or feeling that something is caught in your throat
• Pain around your teeth, or loosening of your teeth
• Numbness of your tongue or elsewhere in your mouth
• Changes in your voice
• A lump in your neck
• Severe pain in one ear with a normal eardrum

Most oral cancers arise on the tongue or on the floor of the mouth. They also may occur inside your cheeks, on your gums or on the roof of your mouth.

Causes

Oral and throat cancer appears to occur as a result of situations that damage the cells in your mouth and throat. Using tobacco, betel nut and excessive alcohol consumption can damage these tissues. The combination of smoking or chewing tobacco and excessive drinking creates a much higher risk of oral and throat cancer. Excessive exposure to ultraviolet light, chewing your lips and the inside of your mouth and wearing loose fitting dentures can damage and result in irritation to cells inside your mouth. Damage to cells may cause them to malfunction and to reproduce rapidly as cancer cells.

About the centres
About National Cancer Centre Singapore

The National Cancer Centre Singapore (NCCS) is a national and regional centre directed at the prevention and treatment of different cancers including thoracic, hepatobiliary, pancreatic, head and neck cancers. Structurally and operationally designed to provide integrated and holistic patient-centred clinical services, it allows cross-consultation among cancer experts of different specialties. Patients can, therefore, enjoy personalised, prompt and customised cancer treatment recommended by a team of radiation, surgical and medical oncologists (cancer experts) during the same visit.

As a one-stop specialist centre housing Singapore's largest pool of oncologists, it has state of the art equipment and employs the latest therapies including mini transplants and targeted therapies which maximise outcomes and minimise undesirable side effects. NCCS also conducts clinical and basic research as well as public cancer education programmes wholly directed at the prevention and treatment of cancer.

About Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology

Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology is a premier technical institution in the state of Kerala supported by the Ministry of Science & Technology, Government of India.For more information: http://www.rgcb.res.in

About The Regional Cancer Centre(RCC), Thiruvananthapuram

RCC is a comprehensive cancer centre catering to the population of the State of Kerala and the adjoining parts of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. RCC has evolved into an internationally recognised centre for conducting a wide range of cancer research and providing state-of-the-art facilities for cancer diagnosis, treatment, palliation and rehabilitation. For more information: http://www.rcctvm.org.