LED Dental Funds Oral Cancer Detection Training Project in Vietnam

LED Dental Inc. (“LED Dental” or the “Company”), today announced that it is bestowing a gift of $8,000 on the University of British Columbia (UBC) which will be directed to the Dr. Catherine Poh Oral Cancer Research Fund at UBC in support of a specific research project titled “Prevention Strategies in Early Detection and Diagnosis of Oral Cancer in Vietnam.” This gift will fund the travel costs to Vietnam in 2015 of two research trainers, to deliver training for various levels of health professionals, including those from the Oncology Hospital and the University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Ho Chi Minh City. As a part of a research project, the Company’s hand-held medical device, the VELscope® Vx Enhanced Oral Assessment System, which helps with the early discovery of oral cancer and other oral disease, will be the center of the program in Vietnam. LED Dental has also agreed to provide the research project with four VELscope® Vx and cameras as a gift in kind valued at $13,392.
“Oral cancer is one of the most common cancers in Vietnam, more than six times higher than for patients in the US and Canada. One in four patients admitted to the Oncology Hospital is diagnosed with advanced oral cancer. The VELscope® Vx will be used as the first step of the mobile screening program to enhance the visualization of the oral mucosal changes,” stated Dr. Catherine Poh, a professor and oral pathologist at UBC and British Columbia Cancer Agency. “With LED Dental’s support, we have the opportunity to provide access to oral cancer screening to high-risk communities in Southern Vietnam where the disease burden is high.”
“We are pleased that the VELscope® Vx will play a major role in helping to address oral cancer issues in the developing world,” stated Dr. David Gane, CEO of LED Medical. “This gift enables us to help people living in countries like Vietnam, where the incidence of oral cancer is not only high but often fatal. We can contribute to improvements in health globally, while finding new markets for the VELscope® Vx.”
The Company manufactures and markets the VELscope® Vx Enhanced Oral Assessment System, the dental industry´s leading adjunctive screening device for defining the extent of a wide range of oral mucosal abnormalities – from viral, fungal and bacterial infections to cancer and pre-cancer. To date, more than 25 million VELscope® Vx exams have been performed by more than 12,000 dentists in 23 countries.