Cancer survivor backs diagnostic lollipop research
A man whose jaw was rebuilt using bone from his leg following a cancer diagnosis has called for people to help support research into treatment for the disease.
Andrew Steele, from Rugby, Warwickshire, underwent a 12-hour operation to treat stage four head and neck cancer in 2021.
The father-of-two is backing a Stand Up To Cancer campaign, which is funding research to develop a lollipop that could detect mouth cancer earlier.
According to Cancer Research UK, about 33,700 people diagnosed with cancer every year in the West Midlands.
Head and neck cancer is the eighth most common form of cancer overall in the UK, and it is two to three times more common in men.
Mr Steele said he wanted to raise awareness and funds to make sure “other people don’t have to go through the same thing.”
He was diagnosed with cancer in April 2021, a few months after visiting the dentist to have a painful wisdom tooth removed.
After the diagnosis, he underwent a biopsy which he said was “brutal” and “quite painful.”
He went on to receive chemotherapy and 33 sessions of radiotherapy, before major surgery to remove his left jawbone and replace it with the fibula bone from his left leg.
‘Kinder, quicker treatments’
Mr Steele has urged others to support Stand Up for Cancer, a campaign run by Cancer Research UK, which takes developments from the lab and turns them into new tests and treatments.
The campaign has invested in a project at the University of Birmingham to develop a lollipop that could detect mouth cancer earlier, without the need for invasive biopsies.
The diagnostic method, developed by doctor Ruchi Gupta and her team, involves turning a smart hydrogel into flavoured lollipops.
Doctors currently have to cut out a small piece of tissue and send it to a laboratory for testing to identify oral cancers.
Mr Steele said the lollipop research was a “huge” step in the right direction.
“The thought that you might one day be able to bypass that whole procedure and get a much quicker appointment to suck on a lollipop instead is brilliant,” he added.
“I’m still in a lot of pain as a result of treatment but that’s why I’m calling on people to Stand Up To Cancer and help support research into kinder, quicker and more effective treatments.”
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