Cancer Research Malaysia Eyes Expansion Of AI-Enabled Oral Cancer Screening Into Indonesia, Cambodia

By Anas Abu Hassan

SINGAPORE, Oct 8 (NNN) -- Independent and non-profit organisation Cancer Research Malaysia is seeking to expand its Mobile Mouth Screening Anywhere (Memosa) initiative to Indonesia and Cambodia to address gaps in oral cancer screening and early detection in remote areas.

Memosa is an artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled mobile health application designed to help detect early signs of oral cancer.

Its Chief Scientific Officer, Prof Dr Cheong Sok Ching said the expansion aims to improve access to oral health screening and specialist advice, particularly for underserved communities located far from conventional healthcare facilities.

"We are now speaking to collaborators in the ASEAN region, including Cambodia and Indonesia to see how Memosa, a tele-consultation tool, can help increase access to oral cancer screening in the region.

"We are waiting for funding and I am going to present our programme to one of the international funding agencies in Bangkok next week. If successful, we will be able to expand Memosa to Cambodia and Indonesia," she told Bernama on the sidelines of Milken Institute Asia Summit 2026 on Thursday.

Citing Indonesia with thousands of remote islands, she said access to dental clinics and oral health screening remains limited.

“So we use innovation and digital health to do that. This also applies to some areas in countries such as Indonesia, where we have collaborators in the oral medicine fraternity who find it really difficult to conduct screening,” she added.

On a related development, Cheong said the organisation is also exploring the development of AI-enabled tools to help overcome the future shortage of expertise in analysing images captured through the Memosa platform.

She noted that the AI-enabled tool will help medical specialists to identify oral lesions in a patient's mouth and determine whether the lesions are cancerous or otherwise.

"It takes a specialist to look into your mouth to do that, but unfortunately in our region not every country has enough specialists to do that.

"That is why AI technology that we are building with our collaborators matters so much," she said.

--NNN