Improved Cytology Brush Design for Diagnosing Oral Cancer
Team Members Heading link
- Akshara Acharya
- Shreya Chaudhry
- Monica Erramilli
- Sandra Rivas
Advisors: Miiri Kotche, PhD, Anthony E. Felder, PhD
Sponsors: Guy Adami, PhD, Joel Schwartz, PhD
Project Description Heading link
Oral cancer caused an estimated 9,750 deaths in the United States in 2010. Late diagnosis can increase the probability of oral cancer advancement which can be prevented by early analysis of visible precancerous lesions using oral cytology. Oral cytology is a non-invasive technique used to collect epithelial cells in the mouth to analyze for the presence of cancer genes. MASS aimed to design an oral cytology brush to collect a comparable yield of microRNA to existing brushes on the market while reducing lesion bleeding, which can contaminate the sample. Additionally, the brush design aims to satisfy the centrifuge tube size constraint and autoclavable sterilization requirement. After several design iterations, the final brush prototype has a head that is easy to remove for analysis, has no sharp edges, and is closer to fitting into a standard 1.5 mL centrifuge tube. The brush consists of an autoclavable handle and a brush head composed of soft nylon bristles (0.0762 mm diameter) adhered to a silicone base. To test the effectiveness of the prototype, the difference in the average microRNA yield between the prototype and control brush would be used to determine how similarly the two brushes perform using an equivalence test. CytoSoftTM, the most common design in the market, would be used as the control group. Reducing the brush head diameter by simply trimming down the base and the silicone would allow the head to fit into a centrifuge tube for microRNA testing. The improved oral cytology brush design will provide an easier alternative to collect samples and aid clinicians in diagnosing oral cancer and diseases.
See supporting documentation in the team’s Box drive.