Speakers: Rong (Rose) Wang, PhD

Rong (Rose) Wang, PhD

Associate Professor in the Department of Oral and Craniofacial Sciences
University of Missouri Kansas City, School of Dentistry

 

Dr. Rose Wang is an Associate Professor in the Department of Oral and Craniofacial Sciences at the UMKC School of Dentistry. Her research focuses on applying cutting-edge bio-spectroscopy and imaging, advanced microscopy techniques, digital pathology, spatial multiomics and machine learning/deep learning to develop novel technologies for the early detection of oral and other cancers. Dr. Rose Wang received her PhD in the Health Sciences and Technology program from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard Medical School in 2005. Prior to joining UMKC in 2018, she spent 10 years in industry, serving as Project Manager, Vice President, and Chief Science Officer in two startup companies.

 

Decoding Bio-Spectroscopy Using Artificial Intelligence for Early Cancer Detection

Early detection is the most effective way of reducing cancer mortality. Despite easy accessibility to the oral cavity, oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is often not diagnosed until late stages, leading to a poor survival. Oral epithelial dysplasia (OED) is a precancerous lesion associated with an increased risk of OSCC transformation. The gold standard histopathological diagnosis is unable to identify high-risk oral precancers that are most likely to undergo malignant transformation. The lack of an objective and quantitative risk stratification approach has prevented effective management of oral precancers and delayed the diagnosis of OSCC. We propose a novel approach using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopic (FTIR) imaging and machine learning to address this medical gap. Using FTIR imaging aided by machine learning, we achieved up to 100% accuracy in discriminating OSCC from benign oral tissues in our previous study. Recently we evaluated the performance of the OSCC-Benign classifier in predicting malignant risk in oral precancers. In this presentation, I would share the outcome of the evaluation. The long-term goal of my research is to develop an artificial intelligence driven precision imaging system using FTIR imaging or in combination with other morphological and functional imaging modalities for early cancer detection and diagnosis.