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Dr Tami Yap is on a mission to transform the way oral cancer is detected and treated, combining cutting-edge imaging, molecular diagnostics, artificial intelligence and community care. By Amber Daines
As a clinician-researcher at the Melbourne Dental School and leader of the Oral Medicine & Oral Cancer Group, Dr Tami Yap is at the intersection of science and patient impact. Her journey and her vision offer a rare glimpse into the high stakes and big promises of oral cancer research.
In October 2025, Dr Yap received a $750,000 grant from the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) for three years to take her work further. The funding will support development of a rural-focused telehealth platform for remote specialist assessments.
Dr Yap’s next goal is clear: to upskill rural health team members in oral photography and to use MouthMap for specialist-supported oral skin screening in rural communities.
MouthMap is the bespoke software Dr Yap designed to help to screen for oral cancer, noting it is essentially an aid to accelerate diagnostic triage by a specialist remotely. The current version of the software was designed to be web-hosted so it can be accessed from anywhere and has a specific layer to add in AI. AI may assist in the acceleration of triage but may also be important in ensuring quality and reliability of the photos.
MouthMap was developed to map high-resolution microscopic images of the mouth onto the precise locations in the mouth from which they were taken. The biggest challenge is its sustainable integration as standard care as this needs to be carefully considered and designed for each country’s specific health system.
This tool has been a game changer for Australian rural communities at existing community aggregating touchpoints. A recent pilot project showed that advanced screening methods could be successfully implemented outside metropolitan centres.
“It showed us that these tools aren’t just for teaching hospitals; they can make a difference in rural communities too,” says Dr Yap. “We know that there is a significant number of individuals in these communities who experience barriers to even attending a health service.”
Oral cancer is often lumped with other fields of dentistry, and I don’t feel there’s the same level of advocacy as there is for other cancers. But it is a cancer that has great impact.
Dr Tami Yap
Dr Yap is now trialling this globally, having teamed up with a world leading AI in oral health group in Munich who have integrated AI into MouthMap for a new trial in assisted care residences in Germany.
Why early detection matters
According to the World Health Organization, more than 370,000 cases of oral cancer are diagnosed each year. In Australia, around 2000 oral cancer cases are diagnosed annually affecting the tongue, lips, cheeks, gums, back of the throat or the soft palate of the mouth. It can be an aggressive cancer with a 50 per cent survival rate over five years.
“Oral cancer is often lumped with other fields of dentistry, and I don’t feel there’s the same level of advocacy as there is for other cancers,” Dr Yap says.
“But it is a cancer that has great impact. People may lose a large portion of their jaw or half their tongue. It changes their speech, how they eat and swallow. Part of their face may always feel numb; it can change their smile, and those impacts can last forever.”
Despite its devastating effects, oral cancer often flies under the radar. Many patients lack classic risk factors. In Australia, one in four people diagnosed with oral cancer have no significant history of smoking or alcohol consumption.
“If oral cancer is diagnosed late, the cost of treatment is three times higher, and the outcomes are much poorer,” Dr Yap says.
A vision splendid
By using these imaging tools more regularly in regional or rural clinics, and with images uploaded to a central platform, it means specialists can provide remote assessments within days. Dr Yap believes it has the potential to expand into other areas of health promotion and is aiming for mainstream implementation within five years.
“It’s about reconnecting oral health with whole body health,” she explains. “That’s the future.”
Beyond her research, Dr Yap remains deeply committed to education and collaboration. She is the Lead, Impact and Engagement of the Melbourne Dental School, and co-lab head of the Oral Medicine & Oral Cancer Group.
“Melbourne Dental School is rightly placed to become a centre of research excellence in this field,” she says.
“We have clinicians across the treatment pathways for oral cancer, we have experienced scientists, and we also have spaces where we can test new therapies and personalised medicine to make a difference.”
Her ambition is not just to detect cancer earlier, but to shift the paradigm to preventive, precision medicine, embedding oral health firmly within mainstream healthcare. She continues to work clinically at hospitals across Melbourne, ensuring her research remains grounded in patient care.
“Regular oral health checks are more than just a routine when it comes to oral cancer. In many ways they are a critical line of defense against oral cancer.”
How it all began
Now finding herself taking a central role in helping shape the next stage of Australian dentistry, Dr Yap admits oral medicine was not her first calling.
“I wanted to be a dermatologist, which is an irony, because I am pretty much doing mouth dermatology now,” she says.
“It is about picturing something in your mind, deconstructing it, then figuring out the steps to get to that final product. That’s what research is about: looking at where the future can go without it existing yet. It’s about discovery, exploration, and testing if we can improve things.”
Her path to oral medicine took her far from home. She moved from Canada to Australia for her undergraduate dental studies at the University of Melbourne, graduating in 2006. She then worked as a dentist in regional Victoria, in both private and public practice, while also teaching at Melbourne uni.
She spent the next six years in general practice, a mix of regional and metropolitan work, before getting more interested in research and specialising in oral medicine. She later completed a combined degree with a PhD.
Mentorship played a decisive role during this time. She credits Professor Michael McCullough, a leading figure in oral medicine, as a formative influence. That mentorship led her to specialty training as a Doctor of Clinical Dentistry in Oral Medicine, and ultimately in 2019 she completed a PhD in oral cancer detection, which set the stage for her research career.
Dr Yap’s first major innovation was a saliva molecular test, which analyses biomarkers in saliva to predict malignant changes before visible symptoms appear.
In her PhD, Dr Yap used a sample type called oral swirls, which is essentially a water wash of the mouth, to study a molecule that describes genetic activity, called microRNA.
“The novelty of the oral swirl is that it was fast and easy to collect. I demonstrated that we could identify a signature within these swirls which could identify oral cancer patients based solely on their sample.
“The most significant finding was that it could also identify cancer patients amongst patients with oral precancer. I see this test as most important for monitoring those with pre-cancerous lesions, which is up to five per cent of the population.”
Dr Yap’s hope is to shift the large number of late diagnoses to early. This will have an obvious impact on individual lives but also significantly reduce the burden on the downstream health providers and related public health costs. Each oral cancer detected early instead of late will reduce the cost of treatment by over 60 per cent.
