Top oncologists release national consensus guidelines for treating oral cancer

The Oral Cancer Task Force in its meeting contemplated on the agenda of framing guidelines specific to Indian subcontinent cancer patients.

Leading oncologists working under the aegis of Oral Cancer Task Force (OCTF) have released India-specific consensus guidelines for the management of head and neck cancer to help doctors improve the treatment outcomes of patients by following evidence-based clinical practice.

“These India-specific guidelines have been drafted on the basis of consultation of leading oncologists, and it aims to augment the treatment outcomes of head and neck cancer patients by following evidence-based clinical practice,” GK Rath, former head of National Cancer Institute, and professor at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) told Moneycontrol.

The guidelines will soon be published in the Journal of Cancer Research Statistics and Treatment.

The task force in its meeting contemplated on the agenda of framing guidelines specific to Indian subcontinent cancer patients.

The oncologists further discussed the agenda to explore and incorporate the latest innovations in the field of oral oncology screening, investigations, treatment and follow-up from bench to bed.

According to the GLOBOCAN 2020 report, India sees over 2.25 lakh new head and neck cancer cases every year out of which over 1.25 lakh deaths are reported every year.

Pragya Shukla, Head of Department (Clinical Oncology), Delhi State Cancer Institute, one of the members of the task force, said the group deliberated on patient advocacy, digital medical advancements, patient navigation initiatives and patient and health data maintenance platforms.

“The National task force on oral cancer meets every year to review and come up with an updated version of its guidelines, which is pertinent to the Indian population,” she said.

Under the OCTF, the first-ever Indian clinical practice guidelines on the management of head & neck cancer (HNC) were laid down and published in the Indian Journal of Cancer in February 2020.

At the conference, a unique Oral Potentially Malignant Disorders (OPMD) Atlas Project was also launched for the creation of a first-of-its-kind, multidimensional data-centric platform for the prevention, early detection, and treatment of oral cancer.

Dr Praveen Birur is the principal investigator for the study, titled ‘Oral Potentially Malignant Lesion Atlas Project: Validating the Efficacy of a Novel, Point-of-Care Diagnostics and Developing an Integrated Multidimensional, Prognostic Nomogram’, which will lead to creating a multi-dimensional data-centric platform for oral cancer incidence.

“OPMD will be a key advance in the war against oral cancer as oral potentially malignant disorders (OPMD) are the precursors of over 80 percent of oral cancers,” Birur said.

The researchers said OPMD Atlas Project aims to evaluate and accurately deploy point-of-care (PoC) diagnosis systems in the national healthcare system to enable accurate screening, detection and prognosis of OPMD patients.

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Founder of Biocon Foundation, said her firm’s intervention in the area of cancer started with oral cancer screening using technology that enabled early detection and prevention.

Mazumdar said Biocon Foundation has catalysed the coming together of four institutes of national eminence to roll out a ‘first of its kind’ research project funded by a central government grant.

“I believe the Oral Potentially Malignant Disorders (OPMD) Atlas project will help in developing a cost-effective and sustainable national oral cancer control program in India,” she added.

The research project funded by a Union government grant will be carried out by Mazumdar-Shaw Medical Foundation, the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, KLE Society’s Institute of Dental Sciences, Bengaluru, the Department of Preventive Oncology, NCI-AIIMS, Jhajjar and the Homi Bhabha Cancer Hospital, Varanasi.