Functional Biomarkers of Oral Cancer

Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is the most common head and neck cancers, and rank as one of the top ten cancers worldwide. More worrying is that the incidence of oral cancer appears to be increasing in many parts of the world. OSCC is characterized by a high degree of local invasiveness and a high rate of metastasis to the cervical lymph nodes. Survival of patients with OSCC has not improved in the last 40 years, despite recent advances in surgical procedures and the availability of new chemotherapeutic agents. In addition, surgical resection results in significant functional and cosmetic defects; therefore, it is important to develop conservative therapeutics, whereupon identification of markers representing OSCC aggressiveness would be worthwhile to decide the most suitable treatment for each patient from therapeutic options.