Health: Artificial intelligence being trained to predict risk of developing oral cancer

The diagnosis of oral cancer could be'revolutionised' by using artificial intelligence to predict whether someone is likely to develop the disease, experts have said. Experts led from the Universities of Sheffield and Warwick have teamed up to investigate how machine learning could be applied to aid doctors in early detection. Diagnoses of oral cancers -- including those of the mouth, tongue and tonsils -- have increased by almost 60 per cent over the last decade, team noted. The risk of such cancers is heightened by such factors as alcohol consumption, increasing age, insufficient fruit and vegetables, tobacco and viral infection. Doctors evaluate the likelihood of pre-cancerous changes in the lining of the mouth -- so-called oral epithelial dysplasia -- developing into cancer using 15 criteria.