Research at Bergen Oral Cancer Research Group (BOCG) lead by professor Johannessen aims at identifying the key molecules of importance for oral cancer development, in order to identify patients at risk for developing oral cancer from premalignant lesions, and to reveal potential targets for more efficient, individualized therapy of oral cancer.

The focus is on understanding the cancer-host interactions, particularly the interaction between the surface epithelium and the underlying connective tissue, and their role in the aggressive behaviour of oral cancer. For that purpose we have established human tissue-based 3D cell culture models of normal mucosa and oral cancer tissue (Costea et al J Amer Pathol 2006). These models open up for further testing of the role of potential biomarkers that have been identified on patient biopsy material.

Using patient material, the 3D models and animal models, the group has shown a crucial role for carcinoma-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) on oral carcinoma development and progression (Costea et al, Cancer Research, 2013), and characterised at the molecular level how CAFs are actively involved in carcinoma development and invasion. The group has also identified 16 diagnostic biomarkers implicated in the regulation of cell cycle, genomic stability, chromatin maintenance, and stem cell regulation (Teh et al., Int J of Cancer, 2013) and developed a a cancer index system of diagnostic and prognostic value based on this panel of molecular epithelial biomarkers. This study validated the use of a molecular-based analysis on two geographically distinct patient cohorts consisting of oral tissue biopsies donated by patients from the United Kingdom and Norway. We plan now to expand this cancer index to include molecules from connective tissue and to validate it in the newly formed multi-centre platform for biomarker testing in oral cancer.

Oral cancer is a burden of disease especially in the Sub-Saharan and Indian Subcontinet. For that reason, international, multi-centre studies on biomarkers in oral cancer are important. Our research group is part of a collaborative network which includes universities and health institutions in Norway (Bergen, Tromsø, and Ålesund, UK (Queen Mary University of London and Bradford Institute for Cancer Therapy), Romania (University of Bucharest), India (Advanced Centre for Treatment Research & Education in Cancer, Tata Memorial Centre, Mumbai, and D.A Pandu Memorial R.V Dental College, Bangalore), Nepal (BP Koirala Memorial Cancer Hospital, Bharatpur) and Sudan (University of Science and technology, Umdurman, and University of Khartoum, Khartoum).