Saving Faces researchers have made great progress with the multi-centre mouth cancer trial, SEND, an acronym for selective elective neck dissection.
The trial will compare the two most commonly used surgical treatments for small mouth cancers to determine which is better at preventing the cancer returning and which provides patients with a better quality of life. Forty surgeons from centres around the UK are taking part in the study and the first patient was treated in June. A SEND tissue bank is currently being set up so that in the future the genetic basis of these tumours can be investigated. New developments in this field may lead to improvements in the diagnosis and treatment of oral squamous cell carcinoma and other less common mouth cancers.