In December 2009 Getwell Life Sciences introduced, for the first time in India, a novel adjunctive screening technology for oral mucosal lesions. This oral cancer screening technology, ViziLite Plus, is patented by Zila (A division of TOLMAR), USA and is approved by USFDA for identification of cancerous and precancerous oral lesions. ViziLite Plus is a simple and effective oral cancer screening device that works on the principle of chemiluminescence and needs no electricity. This makes ViziLite Plus ideal for oral cancer screening camps that can benefit the large rural population of a country like India. Reduction in death rates due to oral cancer can be achieved by integrating adjunctive screening for oral cancer into routine clinical practice.

The relevance of this unique oral cancer screening product in the Indian context can be highlighted against the backdrop of some alarming facts:

• 1,62,000 patients of oral cancer – the highest incidence in the world
• 65,000 patients diagnosed every year
• 70% of oral cancers are diagnosed in late stages
• 35,000 deaths per year as a result of oral cancer
• 30% of oral lesions are missed by visual examination alone
• About 40% of all cancers is oral cancer
• 190 million tobacco users aged 15 and above

The inclusion of ViziLite Plus in Oral Cancer Screening Programmes would be decisive in saving lives and improving survival of thousands of patients.

ViziLite Plus has two components which together ensure a high sensitivity and specificity close to 100%:

• The primary component is the chemiluminescent light source which emits light of a specific wave-length (430 nm). This chemically engineered non-thermogenic light is absorbed by cells of normal tissue and reflected by abnormal cells. Visualization of the oral mucosa with ViziLite in dark or dim ambience makes atypical or dysplastic mucosal abnormalities appear bright white (acetowhite), distinctly demarcated and sharply marginated in contrast with surrounding normal tissues. Thus, chemiluminescence enhances the visual characteristics of oral lesions after a conventional visual examination.

• TBlue oral lesion marking system is the other component of ViziLite Plus that allows differential identification of malignant and premalignant lesions by staining areas defined by chemiluminescence. The ready-to-use TBlue swab in ViziLite Plus is pharmaceutical grade toluidine blue patented by Zila which has high specificity for malignant and pre-malignant lesions. In a study published in the Journal of Oral Oncology in 2007, TBlue stain retention was associated with a large reduction in biopsies showing benign histology (false positive biopsy results), while maintaining 100% NPV for presence of severe dysplasia or cancer.