Life Sciences & Medicine Active Updated Jul 22, 2026
A one-hour brush test for oral cancer
Standard oral cancer biopsies are painful enough in a sensitive area that patients needing repeat monitoring often stop showing up, letting dangerous lesions go undetected. Queen Mary University of London researchers built qMIDS, a brush swab reading mRNA activity from four genes, as a painless alternative delivering results in under an hour. The arc will run as the test moves toward commercialization and regulatory approval.
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Jul 22, 2026 Latest
Researchers at Queen Mary University of London, working with partners in India, tested a brush swab called qMIDS on 545 patients with suspicious mouth lesions and found 95.5 percent overall accuracy, with false-positive and false-negative rates each under 5 percent, comparable to a microbiopsy. Oral oncologist Muy-Teck Teh said he expects the test could reach clinics within two years.
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