Cancer-Focused Teams
Oral Cancer Team (OCT)

Starting date: September 2023

Work Programme

Oral cancer ranks as the 16th most commonly diagnosed cancer type and the 16th most common cause of cancer death globally. Well-established risk factors for oral cancer include use of tobacco in all forms (smoked or smokeless), consumption of alcoholic beverages, and use of betel quid with or without tobacco. In regions where use of smokeless tobacco and/or areca nut is highly prevalent, oral cancer is a leading cause of death. However, oral cancer prevention is largely under-researched.

The overall aim of the Oral Cancer Team (OCT) is to develop innovative and collaborative research across multidisciplinary themes through cross-Agency and international collaborations, with a focus on low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). The overall goal is to provide evidence that can be used to reduce the global burden of cancer.

OCT is developing activities around the following themes to reduce the global burden of oral cancer, particularly in LMICs:

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Current activities within OCT include the following:

Surveillance

• The role of smokeless tobacco use in the global oral cancer burden (PAF-SLT/AN)
• Evidence and gap map of oral cancer prevention studies (EGMAP-OC)

Primary prevention

• Cost–effectiveness analyses of primary prevention interventions for cessation of smokeless tobacco and/or areca nut use (COST-SLT/AN)

Early detection

• Cost–effectiveness analyses of secondary prevention (screening) (COST-SCR)
• Development of an oral cancer risk score to optimize screening strategies for oral cancer (OC-RISK)

Population-based epidemiology

• Effects of smoking cessation on prognosis of head and neck cancer
• Prognostic models of head and neck cancer with genomic markers
• Factors affecting delays in diagnosis of head and neck cancer
• Human leukocyte antigen (HLA) region associations with oral cancer risk
• Genome-wide susceptibility loci for oral cancer in diverse populations

Policy

• Development of recommendations for oral cancer screening

Team Composition

Team Leaders/Coordinators: Dr Shama Virani (Scientist), Genomic Epidemiology Branch (GEM), IARC
Email: ViraniS@iarc.who.int
Dr Andre Carvalho (Deputy Branch Head), Early Detection, Prevention, and Infections Branch (EPR), IARC
Dr Béatrice Lauby-Secretan (Head, IARC Handbooks of Cancer Prevention Programme), Evidence Synthesis and Classification Branch (ESC), IARC
Dr Harriet Rumgay (Postdoctoral Scientist), Cancer Surveillance Branch (CSU), IARC

Team members at IARC:
Dr Carol De Carvalho (Scientist, GEM)
Ms Elmira Ebrahimi (Doctoral Student, GEM)
Dr Suzanne T. Nethan (Visiting Scientist, ESC)
Dr Sandra Perdomo (Scientist, GEM)
Dr Apiwat Sangphukieo (Postdoctoral Scientist, GEM)
Dr Mahdi Sheikh (Scientist, GEM)
Dr Jiri Zavadil (Deputy Branch Head, EGM)

External Team members:
Dr David I. Conway (University of Glasgow, United Kingdom)
Dr Tom Dudding (University of Bristol, United Kingdom)
Dr Irena Duś-Ilnicka (Wroclaw Medical University, Poland)
Dr Olena Mandrik (University of Sheffield, United Kingdom)
Dr Gamege Ranasinghe (Ministry of Health, Sri Lanka)
Dr Alan Roger dos Santos Silva (State University of Campinas, Brazil)
Dr Pierre Saintigny (Centre Léon Bérard and Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, France)
Dr Pichit Sittitrai (Chiang Mai University, Thailand)
Dr Benoit Varenne (WHO headquarters)
Dr Saman Warnakulasuriya (King’s College London, United Kingdom)

Key networks: International team with members from Brazil, the Islamic Republic of Iran, Sri Lanka, Thailand, the United Kingdom, and the USA; networks from multicentre studies including Translational Studies of Head and Neck Cancer in South America and Europe (HEADSpAcE; https://headspace.iarc.who.int/); the IARC Handbooks of Cancer Prevention Programme (https://handbooks.iarc.who.int/).

Key funding: Institut national du Cancer (INCa), France; European Commission

Key publications

1. IARC (2023). Oral cancer prevention. IARC Handb Cancer Prev. 19:1–358. Available from: https://publications.iarc.who.int/617.
2. Bouvard V, Nethan ST, Singh D, Warnakulasuriya S, Mehrotra R, Chaturvedi A, et al. (2022). IARC perspective on oral cancer prevention. N Engl J Med. 387(21):1999–2005. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMsr2210097 PMID:36378601
3. Mandrik O, Roitberg F, Lauby-Secretan B, Parak U, Ramadas K, Varenne B, et al. (2023). Perspective on oral cancer screening: time for implementation research and beyond. J Cancer Policy. 35:100381. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcpo.2022.100381 PMID:36599217
4. Gapstur SM, Bouv. Gapstur SM, Bouvard V, Nethan ST, Freudenheim JL, Abnet CC, English DR, et al. (2023). The IARC perspective on alcohol reduction or cessation and cancer risk. N Engl J Med. 389(26):2486–94. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMsr2306723 PMID:38157507