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Profiling early head and neck cancer

Nature Reviews Cancer volume 5, pages 127–135 (2005)Cite this article

Abstract

Head and neck squamous-cell carcinoma (HNSCC) is the sixth most common cancer worldwide and, disappointingly, survival rates are not improving. Moreover, HNSCC has a severe impact on the quality of life of patients and survivors, and the significant morbidity subsequent to treatment often mandates long-term multidisciplinary care, which places significant financial pressures on the treating institution. Therefore, prevention and early diagnosis of high-risk pre-malignant lesions are high priorities for reducing deaths due to head and neck cancer. Recent advances have begun to elucidate the different aetiologies of HNSCCs in relation to previous pre-malignancies and to identify which pre-malignant lesions are likely to progress to malignancy.

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Figure 1: Typical pictures of leukoplakias and erythroplakias.
Figure 2: Relationships of dysplasias to carcinomas revealed by gene-expression profiling.

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Acknowledgements

The work of P.R.H. and E.K.P. is supported by Cancer Research UK. K.D.H. is a clinical lecturer in oral pathology at the University of Glasgow. The authors' work is the product of a longstanding collaboration with clinical colleagues and pathologists in Glasgow, particularly G. MacDonald and D. Felix at the Glasgow Dental Hospital and School; D. Soutar at the Plastic Surgery Unit at Glasgow Royal Infirmary; and L. Clark at the Southern General Hospital, Glasgow. We are grateful to G. MacDonald and colleagues at the Beatson Institute (M. Frame, D. Gillespie and B. Ozanne) for constructive comments on the manuscript. We are also grateful to L. Batti at the Scottish Cancer Registry, Information and Statistics Division, Edinburgh, for supplying the Scottish and European oral cancer incidence statistics.

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  1. The Beatson Institute for Cancer Research, Garscube Estate, Switchback Road, Bearsden, G61 1BD, Glasgow, Scotland

    Keith D. Hunter & Paul R. Harrison

  2. the Research Centre for Clinical and Diagnostic Oral Sciences, Institute of Dentistry, Queen Mary's School of Medicine and Dentistry, St Bartholomew's and the London Hospital, Turner Street, London, E1 2AD, UK

    E. Ken Parkinson

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DATABASES

Entrez Gene

COX1

COX2

CYP2E1

EGFR

FHIT

INK4A

p53

RB

National Cancer Institute

breast cancer

head and neck cancer

lung cancer

FURTHER INFORMATION

Beatson laboratories

Upstate Medical University oral cancer genetics database

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Hunter, K., Parkinson, E. & Harrison, P. Profiling early head and neck cancer. Nat Rev Cancer 5, 127–135 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrc1549

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