Thursday, September 18, 2025 9/18/2025

Multimodal Intraoral Imaging System for Oral Cancer Detection and Diagnosis in Low Resource Setting

Award Number: R01DE030682
ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF DENTAL AND CRANIOFACIAL RESEARCH
OPDIV: NIH
AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY
AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: SCIENTIFIC/HEALTH RESEARCH (INCLUDES SURVEYS)
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 08/10/2021
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 07/31/2026

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Multimodal Intraoral Imaging System for Oral Cancer Detection and Diagnosis in Low Resource Setting - Oral and oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) together rank as the sixth most common cancer worldwide, accounting for 400,000 new cancer cases each year. Two-thirds of these cancers occur in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). While the 5-year survival rate in the U.S. is 62%, the survival rate is only 10- 40% and cure rate around 30% in the developing world. The poor survival rate in LMICs is mainly due to late diagnosis and the resultant progression of disease to an advanced stage at diagnosis. Therefore, it is imperative to diagnose precursor and malignant lesions in LRS early and expeditiously. To meet the need for technologies that enable comprehensive oral cancer screening and diagnosis in low resource settings (LRS) to identify the suspicious lesions, triage the high-risk subjects and thereby enable appropriate treatment management and follow up, this project brings together an interdisciplinary team with complementary expertise in optical imaging, oncology, deep learning, technology translation, and commercialization. The team will develop, validate, and clinically translate a multimodal intraoral imaging system for oral cancer detection and diagnosis with better sensitivity and specificity. This work will address key barriers to adopting optical imaging techniques for oral cancer in LRS by building on the team’s experience in 1) developing and evaluating dual-mode (polarized white light imaging [pWLI] and autofluorescence imaging [AFI]) mobile imaging probes; 2) evaluating a low-cost, portable optical coherence tomography (OCT) system for oral cancer detection and diagnosis in a nodal center setting in India; and 3) developing and evaluating deep learning-based image classification algorithms for clinical decision-making guidance. As each of these key techniques has been demonstrated separately for oral cancer imaging in LRS, the potential of successfully developing a multimodal intraoral imaging system for accurate, objective and location-resolved diagnosis of oral cancer and transitioning to a new capability to medical professionals in LRS is very high. To achieve the project objective, the team proposes three Aims: 1) develop a portable, semi-flexible, and compact multimodal intraoral imaging system; 2) evaluate the clinical feasibility of the prototyped intraoral imaging system and develop deep learning-based image processing algorithms for early detection, diagnosis, and mapping of oral dysplastic and malignant lesions; and 3) validate the capability of the prototyped intraoral imaging system for diagnosing oral dysplasia and malignant lesions. Successful completion of this project will lead to the transition of a multimodal intraoral imaging system and deep learning image classification that leverage the individual strengths of multiple technologies and deliver new and urgently-needed capabilities to the end users in LRS. This integrated system will 1) detect suspicious regions with high sensitivity and specificity; 2) triage the high-risk subjects; and 3) guide the selection of biopsy sites and map lesion heterogeneity to improve treatment planning and intra-operative guidance.


Issue Date FY	Funding FY	Legal Entity Name	Legal Entity Address	Legal Entity City	Legal Entity State	Legal Entity Zip Code	Legal Entity COUNTY	Legal Entity COUNTRY	Assistance Listing	Award Code	Budget Year	Action Date	Action Type	Action Amount

Issue Date FY: 2025 ( Subtotal = $1 )
2025	2025	UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA	845 N PARK AVE RM 538	TUCSON	AZ	85721	PIMA	USA	Oral Diseases and Disorders Research	001	5	7/23/2025	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$0
2025	2025	UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA	845 N PARK AVE RM 538	TUCSON	AZ	85721	PIMA	USA	Oral Diseases and Disorders Research	000	5	7/15/2025	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$1
														Subtotal = $1

Issue Date FY: 2024 ( Subtotal = $548,912 )
2024	2024	UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA	845 N PARK AVE RM 538	TUCSON	AZ	85721	PIMA	USA	Oral Diseases and Disorders Research	001	4	7/16/2024	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$548,912
2024	2022	UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA	845 N PARK AVE RM 538	TUCSON	AZ	85721	PIMA	USA	Oral Diseases and Disorders Research	000	2	10/10/2023	SUPPLEMENT FOR EXPANSION	$0
														Subtotal = $548,912

Issue Date FY: 2023 ( Subtotal = $618,207 )
2023	2023	UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA	845 N PARK AVE RM 538	TUCSON	AZ	85721	PIMA	USA	Oral Diseases and Disorders Research	001	3	7/28/2023	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$618,207
2023	2022	UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA	845 N PARK AVE RM 538	TUCSON	AZ	85721	PIMA	USA	Oral Diseases and Disorders Research	000	2	7/18/2023	SUPPLEMENT FOR EXPANSION	$0
														Subtotal = $618,207

Issue Date FY: 2022 ( Subtotal = $922,131 )
2022	2022	UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA	888 N EUCLID AVE RM 510	TUCSON	AZ	85719	PIMA	USA	Oral Diseases and Disorders Research	001	2	7/11/2022	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$639,824
2022	2022	UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA	888 N EUCLID AVE RM 510	TUCSON	AZ	85719	PIMA	USA	Oral Diseases and Disorders Research	002	2	8/4/2022	SUPPLEMENT FOR EXPANSION	$282,307
2022	2021	UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA	888 N EUCLID AVE RM 510	TUCSON	AZ	85719	PIMA	USA	Oral Diseases and Disorders Research	000	1	3/2/2022	NEW	$0
														Subtotal = $922,131

Issue Date FY: 2021 ( Subtotal = $693,571 )
2021	2021	UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA	888 N EUCLID AVE RM 510	TUCSON	AZ	85719	PIMA	USA	Oral Diseases and Disorders Research	000	1	8/9/2021	NEW	$693,571
														Subtotal = $693,571

Grand Total All Awards = $2,782,822

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Multimodal Intraoral Imaging System for Oral Cancer Detection and Diagnosis in Low Resource Setting

Award Number: R01DE030682

ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF DENTAL AND CRANIOFACIAL RESEARCH

OPDIV: NIH

AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY

AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: SCIENTIFIC/HEALTH RESEARCH (INCLUDES SURVEYS)

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 08/10/2021

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 07/31/2026

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