Table of Contents

Abstract

Oral Cancer is the sixth most common type of cancer worldwide and 90% of it is represented by Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma (OSCC). India has the highest prevalence of OSCC as per the World Oral Health Report. OSCC has few risk factors associated with it such as high metastasis rate, high probability of recurrence, less survival rate and lack of public awareness. Despite many advancements in therapeutic strategies, there is a tremendous increase in the mortality and morbidity rate due to the availability of tobacco and related products that elevate the occurrence of the disease. The majority of patients are diagnosed and treated for this disease at the terminal stages (III or IV). These are the main reasons for the escalating mortality rates. Due to this, there is an immense necessity for early diagnosis of OSCC which should be given utmost importance. Biomarkers are indispensable biological molecules that can be used to identify normal cellular alterations. Histological examination using biomarkers is considered as one of the most reliable technique for the diagnosis of OSCC. These biomarkers can also be analyzed by other means such as solid biopsy and liquid biopsy which contains DNA, RNA or proteins used for examining the expression pattern of particular genes or proteins. There are three broad categories of biomarker discoveries: Genomic, Proteomic and Metabolomic which is expressed during progression and metastasis of OSCC. This chapter deals with different potentially malignant disorders in the development of OSCC, diagnostic methods of OSCC, the pertinence of biomarker in OSCC therapy, classification of biomarkers, existing biomarkers in different stages of OSCC and the challenges of developing new biomarkers.

Keywords: oral squamous cell carcinoma, OSCC, potentially malignant disorders, OSCC diagnostic methods, types of biomarker, biomarker classification