Avocados have the ability to find and destroy oral cancer cells according to researchers at Ohio State led by Steven D'Ambrosio, Ph.D. According to D'Ambrosio, the compounds of interest found in avocado target only the precancerous and cancerous cells, and not the normal cells.

Researchers are not sure how the compounds in the avocados do this, but they suspect it has something to do with phytonutrients found in the food.

Avocados are loaded with all sorts of good things, and here is one more reason to eat them.

Testing for oral cancer just got much easier -- a new method of testing for the disease will soon be available. The testing method can be done in a medical office and uses lab-on-a-chip microfluidic technology to determine a diagnosis. Furthermore, the test is fully automated and can be completed in a mere 10 minutes.

The test was developed at researchers at the University of Texas (Austin) with funding from the NIH. Here's how it works: Cells from the mouth are mixed with fluorescent marker proteins, illuminating any suspicious cells. Pretty ingenious, if you ask me. Now if we could only make other cancer screening as painless and quick ...

According to The Oral Cancer Foundation, approximately 300,000 people worldwide are newly diagnosed with oral cancer. In the US alone, a person dies from oral cancer every hour of every day. Oral cancers are a group of cancers which fall into the head and neck cancer category, commonly known as mouth cancer, tongue cancer, and throat cancer. When oral cancer is diagnosed early, there can be a 90 percent survival rate. However, the majority of oral cancers are not diagnosed until the cancer has progressed, accounting for the very high death rate. Oral cancer detection is usually made by a dentist.

A promising simple test, a saliva test for oral cancer, may be in the works. UCLA School of Dentistry scientists in Dr. David Wong's laboratory have developed the Saliva RNA Test for Oral Cancer. The test has been highly accurate in detecting oral cancer, at around 82 percent. This is the first standardized saliva-based test for clinical oral cancer detection and will have enormous clinical value in reducing the mortality and morbidity for oral cancer patients, as well as improving quality of life.