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Government grant awarded to extended oral cancer research

Category: Cancer Detection and Tumor Markers

Funding made available from the Obama Administration's stimulus plan will assist the UCLA School of Dentistry in cancer research.

The National Institutes of Health awarded more than $5 million to UCLA which will be used toward the construction of a state-of-the-art complex designed to expand the School of Dentistry's research on the detection and treatment of oral cancer. The building will be called the Yip Center for Oral/Head & Neck Oncology Research. In the past three years, the school was awarded close to $30 million in grants for oral cancer research.

Construction plans for the complex, which is named after philanthropists Felix and Mildred Yip, have already begun. The construction is expected to conclude in 2013.

No-Hee Park, dean of the UCLA School of Dentistry, commented, "This visionary funding will enable the dental school to become a nexus of multidisciplinary, collaborative research." She added that she hopes the school will become the "premier" oral cancer research program in the country.

According to the Oral Cancer Foundation, oral cancer kills about one person every hour, and only half of oral cancer patients survive for more than 5 years after their diagnosis. The National Cancer Institute recommends oral cancer testing to detect the disease at an early, treatable stage.