We are revolutionizing the future of preventive oncology starting with Oral Cancer

Abstract

With medical advances & advent of exponential technologies, we believe that living a healthier & longer life is not far from reality. Still the incidence of life threatening & hard to detect diseases such as cardiovascular diseases, chronic kidney disease & cancer is increasing

Specifically the spread of cancer, an outcome of mitochondrial dysfunction, is rampant although we now have scientific evidence that it is absolutely preventable. However, lack of application of technologies & failure to utilize insights from new science discoveries have made it difficult to identify hard to detect the signals well before tumor manifests, leading to lack of early diagnosis, poor prognosis & health outcomes & low survival rates.

Modern Healthcare model still believes that cancer is a genetic disease while a number of research & real human data has proved that cancer is a metabolic disorder & genetic mutations are downstream effects of mitochondrial dysfunction, not the reason itself

Global statistics depicts a gruesome picture with 62% increase in global cancer cases by year 2025. In India alone , more than 13% of the adult population is at high risk of cancer with more than 2100 people losing their lives to cancer daily.?

Oral cancer- the unaddressed territory

Among the various forms of cancer, oral cancer is becoming one the most concerning with India accounting for 1/3rd of global incidence.

In the current clinical practice, diagnosing oral cancer depends upon physical examination & expertise of healthcare practitioners( physician, dentist) which generally look at post cancer specific organ( mouth) symptoms & observable lesions in mouth & visible tumor size in PET scans. It is like picking a handful of dust from an ocean depth. Hard truth is these evaluation methods fails to identify cancer in early stages & cannot go deep into change in biochemistry that triggers cancer onset, growth & tumor proliferation

Changes in an individual’s biochemistry triggering oral cancer( like other forms), initiates years before the post cancer symptoms show up. This involves molecular complexity & hidden details with respect to mitochondria dysfunction & molecular dysregulation in cellular functions that precedes tumor development which are generally missed by PET scan & physical examination techniques.?

To gain comprehensive asymptomatic molecular changes indicative of cancer, there is a need for advanced technological tools.

The visual & tactical examination suffers from examiner bias & is subjective. In Fact this technique is not accurate & the number of false positive cases are substantial, making it hard to measure pre-tumor & pre-lesion signals.

The post oral cancer observable symptoms which healthcare practitioners rely on are not visible during stage I or II, leading to late diagnosis. Most of the oral cancer cases( >70%) are detected in stage III or IV when the tumor has progressed/grown or even lead to a situation of metastasis. At these stages, the 5 year survival rate is less than 50%.

Introducing India’s first & only early stage oral cancer detect test-ORAONCO

Measuring the biochemistry at molecular level to identify pre-tumor signals can propel early detection( Pre stage I, stage I, stage II) of oral cancer when the symptoms are not visible. This increases the changes of successful treatment & survival. Lack of technological tools to discover pre-cancer molecular signals in the current healthcare practice regime has led to metastasis -spread of tumor to other parts of the body like fire catching entire forest, thereby leading to devastating state of health.

In early stages, there are changes in gene expression levels, trigger of inflammatory cascades ( pre-stage 1,triggering mitochondrial dysfunction ) & small size of tumor/cancer cells in specific areas which can be eliminated/modulated with effective treatment options without going for hard & poison laden radiation & chemotherapies. Even the immune system can respond effectively at an early stage leveraging precision nutrition.?

However when these changes are left unchecked, as is the case in current cancer care practice, cancer metastasizes( stage III & IV) & spreads to other body organs & the battle is lost. The modern radiation & chemo therapies become more aggressive involving complex procedures & medications that do not work in 75% of occasions & even in those cases where it works, the collateral damage makes cancer patients develop a host of other health conditions including hypertension, neurological issues, type 2 diabetes, sexual dysfunction & more.?

A proactive approach, aided by new age exponential technologies, can help measure the biochemistry at molecular level which was not possible earlier, and can assist in prevention of oral cancer or stopping its progression. However, current practice is still far away from tech driven preventative strategies & is focused on less effective & error prone external chemical driven treatment with poor health outcomes & low 5 year survival rate

Those who follow us know that Genefitletics goes beyond DNA & analyzes biochemical functions of human microbiome since DNA plays a minor role in onset & progression in chronic diseases & cancer while measuring biochemical functions tells the current state of biological story.?

Our cancer detect platform that is home to our oral cancer early detect test- ORAONCO is backed by & populated with relevant research & clinical trials insights from existing peer reviewed scientific literature. ORAONCO measures & quantifies molecules from microbial & fungal cells & viruses?

Thanks for our 4 years of detailed research, we have built a completely tech & molecular data driven early oral cancer early detect test which is objective, driven by science, have high specificity & sensitivity ( ~ 80%) that overcomes the lack of reproducibility, variability( false positives), later diagnosis, poor prognosis & adverse health outcomes in the current standard of care healthcare model.

The starting point of ORAONCO is saliva sample collection kit that contains sample collection tube & instructions for collective & preserving molecules from saliva( "raw material) which will be processed, analyzed & interpreted to discover molecular signatures( changes in biochemistry) that precedes tumor development ( onset of oral cancer). The test measures the biochemical functions of microbial cells in the oral cavity to identify hundreds of molecular signals & translate them into 7 biological mechanisms underlying oral cancer onset.

This consumer friendly saliva based molecular test with 80% specificity & sensitivity is bringing revolution in preventive oncology.

Biochemical pathways that determine movement towards or away from oral cancer

Genefitletics sequences & analyzes every single molecule coming from microbial cells in the oral cavity & combines it with phenotype & longitudinal metadata to measure & quantify 27 biochemical pathways( molecular signals) that are combined mathematically into 7 biological mechanisms. Our machine learning model overlays the mathematical model on these biological mechanisms to early detect onset of cancer categorized into “ detected”, “ progression” & “ not detected”.

Even if a particular biological pathway does not contribute to activation of carcinogenic activity or inflammatory cascade contributing to mitochondria dysfunction, Genefitletics machine learnt model yet scores that particular pathway based on current activity level.

This makes our data driven model more advanced & accurate than microbiome tests focussing on DNA or composition. For instance, a biological pathway- methyl Mercaptan Production may have fewer elements of Fusobacterium nucleatum which may be regarded by microbiome DNA test as not relevant to onset of oral cancer while our model that, measures biochemical activity of each of the microbes, in case of this particular pathway would categorize activity of this specie as suboptimal & contributing towards cancer onset due to its high inflammatory although its presence is not be substantial.

?Typical pathways- Methyl Mercaptan Production & Genotoxic Potential

Methyl mercaptan is a harmful metabolite produced by your oral microbiome when they metabolize L-methionine. This pathway is associated with bad breath & Periodontitis & is an essential biomarker for onset & progression of Oral Cancer. The ability of different microbes such as Fusobacterium Nucleatum, P Gingivalis , Treponema Denticola & more to chronically settle in the mouth depends on their properties, host defenses, and their biochemical functions. When one or more species trigger pro-inflammatory cascades, they may dominate the microbial ecosystem? and trigger secretion of volatile sulfur compounds. Our data show that an increased activity of? microbes analyzed in this score is associated with oral cancer. Our research & finding shows that people with oral cancer exhibit high production of Methyl Mercaptan/high activity of Methyl Mercaptan production pathway. We measure & quantify the activity of this pathway as a molecular signature for oral cancer onset

Similarly, the genotoxic potential of an individual’s biology is impacted by certain volatile organic compounds released by the salivary microbiome which increases the toxic burden of the cells. Genotoxic potential measures the activities of streptococcus species in the mouth. These species based on external triggers could express virulence genes which could lead to increased production of? reactive oxygen species, formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, and acetoin. These compounds have huge genotoxic potential.? Our research shows that cancerous populations exhibit high genotoxic potential. We measure & quantify the activity of this pathway as a molecular signature for oral cancer onset

Cancer preventing actionable interventions?

Nutrition is medicine & plays a key role in programming our biology for either health or disease. This external trigger could stimulate altered gene expression of human & microbial cells, causing production of metabolites that could either give nutrients or release toxins which is implicated in onset & progression of range of chronic diseases. The truth is cancer is no different.?

Under the current standard of care for cancer, none of the healthcare practitioners or hospitals focus on nutrition,but rather strives on just suppressing cancer cells with chemicals & therapies which often deliver poor health outcomes as we have detailed in the initial part of the blog.

While empirical evidence & research supports that? cancer cells feed on glucose & glutamine via ancient fermentation pathways even in low oxygen environments, identifying what specific food substrates should be part of our nutrition program is very important as it not only nourishes our healthy cells but also starve cancer cells. This translates to biochemically suppressing pathways that are triggering inflammation , mitochondrial dysfunction, reducing the activity of cancer cell fermentation pathways? & stimulating those which improve the antioxidant capacity & provide beneficial compounds for healthy cells.

With the objective of providing actionable solutions to eliminate the pre-tumor, pre-lesion molecular signals before they translate into accelerating tumor development & growth & metastasis, our machine learnt algorithm supporting ORAONCO, scientifically aligns the activity level of pathways with our proprietary nutrition ontology database to construct the most precise nutrition program married to your unique biochemistry that aims at eliminating inflammatory activity & carcinogenic molecules while nourishing your healthy cells with right food substrates to prevent onset of oral cancer, stop its progression or reverse it

Our platform also provides Industry’s first personalized nutrition tableau that empowers you to plan your diet/nutrition schedule for every week in advance, obviating the need of a nutritionist. You have option to make a nutrition schedule & download it?

The efficacy mapping model

In order to effectively monitor progress of your cancer prevention therapeutics approach, it is essential to track the impact of the nutrition program at regular intervals. Our cancer detect platform provides you an excellent monitoring mechanism to track improvements in your current state of health everytime you fill up a phenotype assessment form. This form collects your longitudinal data at every 3 months duration related to comprehensive cancer related symptoms/body signals. This data which forms one of the essential fuels for our big data platform is mined by our algorithm to revise your nutrition recommendations. To summarize,? every 3 months, you could review the impact of your nutrition program & our machine learnt model to make real time? nutrition modifications based on the current state of your cellular & oral health.

In case you wish to share your data with your healthcare practitioners/oncologist, you have select the option in the phenotype form & our system will automatically send across the access to your molecular data, pathways scores & longitudinal data to your oncologist/dentist via our Industry’s first system biology platform for healthcare practitioners

Criteria for signing up for ORAONCO

You must be wondering how do I sign up for the test? What is the criteria? How often should I test?

We consider certain pertinent risk factors which makes it essential to discover your movement towards or away from oral cancer at molecular level. The test is right now available on our website?

The test is also available for clinicians, dentists & oncologists who can see early subtle signs of oral health imbalances in their patients. Some of the indications which would warrant you or your healthcare practitioner to subscribe to ORANOCO? includes

-Obesity, type 2 diabetes, hypertension, high blood pressure, erectile dysfunction & compromised heart health.

-History of smoking & consumption of tobacco & tobacco products

-Signs of oral cavity or lesions

-HPV Infections

-Age- 50 years & above

-Having a premalignant disorder

Even if you do not have any of these risk factors, we highly recommend you to go for ORANOCO as 90% of us have some or the other oral health issues. It is also recommended to go for this test if you have continuous gum bleeding or you do not brush twice a day.

The test along with cancer preventing interventions & regular monitoring of your cellular health is available on an annual subscription model & we recommend you should test for oral cancer once every year.

This is one of its kind a comprehensive solution starting from measuring your biochemistry to identify biomarkers for early disease onset? to providing you interventions & tracking the progress in order to bring your body back into homeostasis.

The test results gives you three possible scenarios

-” DETECTED”: Visit a specialist, like an oncologist, ENT, or head and neck surgeon to seek a definite diagnosis while following your nutrition recommendations rigorously.

-”PROGRESSION”: Visit a specialist, like an oncologist, ENT, or head and neck surgeon to seek a definite diagnosis while following your nutrition recommendations rigorously & adopting the treatment plan your oncologist/specialist recommends

-”NOT DETECTED”: Please follow your recommendations & visit your specialist at regular intervals. Come back for re-test in 12 months time

Final points

-Detecting oral cancer at earliest stage increases the chances of survival

-At early stage/pre-tumour stage, nutrition plays a very important role in eliminating carcinogenic molecule before cancer manifests

-ORANOCO measures early molecular signatures for oral cancer but does not diagnose it. For confirmed diagnosis, you should approach your healthcare practitioner along with your ORONOCO results as it will propel, prevention or early treatment

ORANOCO is not an FDA? approved or cleared test?

ORANOCO is not an Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) approved or cleared test?

Citations

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7079586/

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1368837523001768