--- title: OScan Smartphone Device Detects Oral Cancer description: Smartphone device developed by Stanford can detect oral cancer. canonical: https://time.com/82874/how-a-smartphone-device-aims-to-detect-oral-cancer/ author: Bijan Stephen article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-04-30T18:16:01.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:09:16.605Z og:title: How a Smartphone Device Aims to Detect Oral Cancer og:description: Smartphone device developed by Stanford can detect oral cancer. og:url: https://time.com/82874/how-a-smartphone-device-aims-to-detect-oral-cancer/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How a Smartphone Device Aims to Detect Oral Cancer twitter:description: Smartphone device developed by Stanford can detect oral cancer. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # How a Smartphone Device Aims to Detect Oral Cancer by [Bijan Stephen](https://time.com/author/bijan-stephen/) ## Bijan Stephen Apr 30, 2014 6:16 PM UTC by [Bijan Stephen](https://time.com/author/bijan-stephen/) ## Bijan Stephen Apr 30, 2014 6:16 PM UTC While oral cancer is relatively straightforward for dentists to diagnose, there is a smartphone device that is supposed to be a low-cost solution for detecting cancerous oral lesions in parts of the world where access to dentists is extremely limited. [_Scientific American_](http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/cavity-and-oral-cancer-diagnosis-with-smartphones/) just profiled a team led by Dr. Manu Prakash at Stanford University that has developed [an easy-to-use screening device called OScan](http://www.stanford.edu/~manup/Oscan/), which attaches to a smartphone or digital camera so health workers can take photos of a patient’s mouth and digitally send them to an offsite expert for analysis—expediting diagnoses to help saving lives. The device is being tested in India, where in most rural parts of the country there’s [statistically one dentist per 250,000 people](http://ojphi.org/article/download/3800/3088%E2%80%8E)—oral cancer goes unnoticed and therefore untreated. The incidence of oral cancer is 12.6 cases per 100,000 people, an unusually high rate. In south-central Asia, oral cavity cancer ranks in the three most common cancers in the population. Worldwide statistics on oropharyngeal cancer are grim, [particularly](http://www.who.int/oral%5Fhealth/media/en/orh%5Freport03%5Fen.pdf) in developing countries (which consume [fully 71%](http://ash.org.uk/files/documents/ASH%5F126.pdf) of the world’s tobacco). The [World Health Organization](http://www.who.int/oral%5Fhealth/publications/orh%5FCDOE%5F2005%5F33%5F397%5F9.pdf?ua=1) [reports](http://www.iarc.fr/en/publications/pdfs-online/wcr/2003/WorldCancerReport.pdf) that “sharp increases in the incidence rates of oral/pharyngeal cancers have been reported for several countries and regions such as Denmark, France, Germany, Scotland, central and eastern Europe and to a lesser extent Australia, Japan, New Zealand and the USA.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/82874/how-a-smartphone-device-aims-to-detect-oral-cancer/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/82874/how-a-smartphone-device-aims-to-detect-oral-cancer/"},"headline":"How a Smartphone Device Aims to Detect Oral Cancer","datePublished":"2014-04-30T18:16:01.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:09:16.605Z","description":"It's designed to be used in places with limited access to dentists.","url":"https://time.com/82874/how-a-smartphone-device-aims-to-detect-oral-cancer/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Science topic"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Bijan Stephen","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/bijan-stephen/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/82874/how-a-smartphone-device-aims-to-detect-oral-cancer/","name":"How a Smartphone Device Aims to Detect Oral Cancer"}}]}] ```