New diagnostic breakthrough predicts which head and neck cancer patients can be cured with surgery alone

    23 July 2025

    Researchers from the University of Turku and Turku University Hospital, Finland, led by Docent Sami Ventelä and Professor Jukka Westermarck, have identified a novel diagnostic tool that can revolutionize the treatment guidance of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.

    Their newly published study introduces  an easy-to-use immunohistochemical assay for detecting the LIMA1-alpha protein, which reliably predicts whether patients can be cured with surgery alone—avoiding the need for harmful oncological treatments.

    “Our findings suggest that immunohistochemical detection of LIMA1-alpha can serve as a reliable and cost-effective tool for identifying patients who could be cured with surgery only and thus spared from the burden of multimodal treatments,” says Docent Ventelä. “This kind of stratification is long overdue and needed in head and neck cancer care.”

    >>Read the full press release

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