Detection and treatment of oral preneoplasia

Recently we showed that the large majority if not all oral cancers are preceded by preneoplastic mucosa. A small subgroup of these preneoplastic tissues are macroscopically visible as leukoplakia and erythroplakia lesions, but the large majority cannot be distinguished at clinical inspection and are only recognizable by histology or genetic methods. We have developed a non-invasive assay using allelic loss analysis assessed by microsatellite PCR. . At the moment treatment of fields that remain after treatment (see 2.3) is being pursued, and an effective treatment regimenis sought to prevent second field tummors. It is anticipated that such a treatment will be active in leukoplakia lesions as well.

Key papers

  • Bremmer, J. F., Braakhuis, B. J., Ruijter-Schippers, H. J., Brink, A., Duarte, H. M., Kuik, D. J., Bloemena, E., Leemans, C. R., van der Waal, I., and Brakenhoff, R. H. A noninvasive genetic screening test to detect oral preneoplastic lesions . Lab Invest, 85: 1481-148, 2005.
  • Bremmer, JF, Braakhuis, BJM, Brink, A, Broeckaert, MAM, Beliën, JAM, Meijer, GA, Kuik, DJ, Leemans CR, Bloemena, E, Waal, I. van der, Brakenhoff, RH. Comperative evaluation of genetic assays to identify oral pre-cancerous fields. J.Oral Pathol Med 37:599-606, 2008.
  • Bremmer, JF, Graveland, AP, Brink, A, Braakhuis, BJM, Kuik, DJ, Leemans, CR, Bloemena, E, van der Waal, I, Brakenhoff, RH. Screening for oral Precancer with Noninvasive Genetic Cytology. Cancer Prevention Research 2009;2(2)
  • Van Zeeburg HJT, Van Beusechem VW, Huizenga A, Koop C, Korokhov N, Gibbs S, Leemans CR, Brakenhoff RH. Adenovirus retargeting to surface expresses antigens on normal oral mucosa. Submitted.
  • Bremmer, Jantine F, Ruud H. Brakenhoff, Mark A.M. Broeckaert, Jeroen A.M. Beliën c, C. René Leemans, Elisabeth Bloemena , Isaäc van der Waal, Boudewijn J.M. Braakhuis: Prognostic value of DNA ploidy status in patients with oral leukoplakia. Oral Oncology 47 (2011) 956–960