News & Updates
A New Approach to Treating Oral Cancer
Tuesday, September 15, 2026
Researchers at Penn Medicine and Penn Dental Medicine are exploring a promising new approach to treating oral squamous cell carcinoma, the most common form of head and neck cancer. The multidisciplinary team has developed a lipid nanoparticle-based treatment designed to deliver two cancer-fighting therapies at once. By combining p53, a protein that helps suppress tumor growth, with the FDA-approved antifungal drug ciclopirox, researchers hope to attack cancer cells while also strengthening the immune system’s ability to recognize and fight them. In preclinical models, the treatment reduced tumor growth and improved survival, offering encouraging evidence for a new approach to treating aggressive oral cancers.
Research like this is at the heart of what Philly Fights Cancer supports: advancing innovative science and helping move promising discoveries closer to the patients who need them. By bringing together experts across cancer research, medicine, dentistry, and engineering, Penn researchers are exploring new ways to make cancer treatment more targeted and effective. Every breakthrough begins with the willingness to ask new questions—and support the research that could turn those discoveries into tomorrow’s treatments.
Read the full Penn Today Article Here.
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Researchers at Penn Medicine and Penn Dental Medicine are exploring a promising new approach to treating oral squamous cell carcinoma, the most common form of head and neck cancer. The multidisciplinary team has developed a lipid nanoparticle-based treatment designed to deliver two cancer-fighting therapies at once. By combining p53, a protein that helps suppress tumor growth, with the FDA-approved antifungal drug ciclopirox, researchers hope to attack cancer cells while also strengthening the immune system’s ability to recognize and fight them. In preclinical models, the treatment reduced tumor growth and improved survival, offering encouraging evidence for a new approach to treating aggressive oral cancers.
Research like this is at the heart of what Philly Fights Cancer supports: advancing innovative science and helping move promising discoveries closer to the patients who need them. By bringing together experts across cancer research, medicine, dentistry, and engineering, Penn researchers are exploring new ways to make cancer treatment more targeted and effective. Every breakthrough begins with the willingness to ask new questions—and support the research that could turn those discoveries into tomorrow’s treatments.
Read the full Penn Today Article Here.