Oral Cancer Foundation initiates program to donate VELscope screening systems

Oct 5 2009

The Oral Cancer Foundation recently initiated a program of donating VELscope® Oral Cancer Screening Systems to free clinics and others located in, and helping communities with, underserved populations. The first recipient of this program is the Native American Community Health Center, commonly known as Native Heath, in Phoenix, Arizona, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.

According to Oral Cancer Foundation executive director Brian Hill, "Our intent is to identify free clinics and health service providers in areas that have a high concentration of people who are both at risk for oral cancer and without the financial means to pay for comprehensive oral exams." The Foundation is also careful to ensure that any clinic receiving aid in the form of equipment and materials has at least one dentist on staff that is regularly present to see patients.

Native Health's Dental Director, Dr. Mahasin Hangalay, believes it would be hard to find an area with a greater need for regular oral cancer screenings. "The Native American community that we serve has the highest rate of tobacco usage of any major demographic group in the country," she said, "as well as an extremely high poverty rate and very poor access to health care." The doctor also noted that because of the reported link between oral cancer and the sexually transmitted human papilloma virus, screenings at the clinic are not just provided to tobacco users, but also to all patients aged 16 or older. Opportunistic screenings of the entire patient population will yield the best possible outcomes.

Dr. Hangalay is particularly happy that the Oral Cancer Foundation chose to award Native Health a device which uses tissue fluorescence as it core scientific platform. "There are other screening products out there, but the value of this science has been well documented in many studies," she said. "While I am currently doing thorough visual and tactile screenings which have proven to be highly valuable in finding early disease states, tissue fluorescence helps me see things not readily visible to the naked eye."

The VELscope system is the first adjunctive screening device cleared by the FDA to help dental practitioners discover cancerous, precancerous and other lesions that might not be apparent to the naked eye. The tissue fluorescence visualization platform on which the VELscope technology is based is supported by over $50 million in research funded by the National Institutes of Health and other respected institutions. The Oral Cancer Foundation purchased numerous VELscope systems at a special price agreed to by the device's manufacturer, LED Dental. The funding that made this effort possible came from the Bruce Paltrow Oral Cancer Fund, OCF's long-time partner in working to bring down the death rate from this disease.

LED Dental's CEO, Dr. Ralph Green, personally trained Dr. Hangalay on the use of the VELscope system. "For many years Native Health has performed a very valuable service to the Phoenix community, and we are pleased and proud that our VELscope system will play a part in the expansion of that effort," said Dr. Green. "We are very confident that our system will help discover oral cancer at earlier and even pre-cancerous stages, when treatment is much less invasive, less costly and more successful."

Native Health's CEO, Richard Zephier, said, "We recently conducted a needs assessment that identified a significant demand for increased dental services. Now, thanks to the generosity of the Oral Cancer Foundation and the Bruce Paltrow Fund, we will be able to make a significant step toward addressing that need, and to change how the community views our dental program.

Over the next ten months, the Oral Cancer Foundation plans to donate twelve of the $7,000 devices to free clinics in both inner cites and rural areas that fit the profile of containing both high risk populations, and communities underserved in health care.

SOURCE The Oral Cancer Foundation