Protein Expression Profile of Oral Premalignant Lesions (OPLs)

Abstract

Oral cancer is a subgroup of head and neck cancer which affects various regions within oral cavity i.e., lips, tongue, salivary glands, and gums. It is the sixth most common cancer, approximately 3% of the total cancer burden and results in 128,000 annual deaths globally [1,2]. The most common type of oral cancer is oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC), which accounts 90% of all oral cancer cases. Patients with OSCC are often diagnosed at a late stage, thus high recurrence rate occurs after treatment, especially in those with neck lymph node metastasis [3]. Despite clinical and treatment advances, the overall 5-year survival rates for oral cancer remains low and stagnant during past few decades [4,5]. Although OSCC is commonly diagnosed through oral examination followed by histopathology and computed tomography/positron emission tomography scanning, there has been continuous interest in developing serum protein biomarkers to aid the diagnosis. Tumor antigens are promising diagnostic biomarkers for human cancers showing the clinical utility of tumor antigens, such as carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), CA-50, CA19-9 and squamous cell carcinoma antigen (SCCA) for OSCC detection [6-9].