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Dear Colleagues,

Oral cancer is a commonly occurring head and neck cancer, 90% of cases of which are diagnosed as oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). This lethal malignancy is a debilitating disease that impacts patients’ physical appearance, causing disfiguration and devastating their self-esteem. Despite improvements in diagnostic facilities and patient management, the prognosis of OSCC remains poor.

Histologically, OSCC is derived from a multistep mechanism known as oral carcinogenesis, which progresses from normal epithelium to hyperplasia, followed by dysplasia and carcinoma in situ, and precedes the development of invasive squamous cell carcinoma. Caused by exposure to carcinogens, such as smoking, excessive alcohol drinking, and HPV infections, this multistep mechanism is characterized by mutations related to copy number alteration and epigenetic modifications.

Precision medicine based on genomic profiling is also becoming more prevalent. It relies on the genetic information of individual patients or specific cancer cells and how their genes interact with each other and the environment. This method has the potential to provide more effective treatment strategies as approaches that can be customized for the specific genetic profiles of patients. The completion of the TCGA HNSCC database has led to the development of new therapeutic approaches and targeted therapies. Lately, immune checkpoint inhibitors have been recognized as one of the standards of care in HNSCC. However, although treating invasive SCC is crucial, the implementation of prevention strategies to preclude malignant transformation has been useful in clinical management.

Topics of interest for this Special Issue include, but are not limited to:

Precision medicine, i.e., targeted therapies that inhibit oral carcinogenesis and tumorigenesis mechanisms;
Combination of novel therapeutic approaches with standard-of-care regimens in OSCC;
Biomarkers, i.e., predictive and prognostic markers for therapeutic approaches.

For this Special Issue of Biomedicines, entitled “Oral Cancer: From Pathophysiology to Novel Therapeutic Approaches—Volume II”, we are inviting the submission of original articles and review articles considering oral carcinogenesis, tumorigenesis, and novel therapeutic approaches as well as biomarkers for treatment efficacy. New experimental clinical results for HNSCC are also welcome.

I look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Vui King Vincent-Chong
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Related Special Issue

Published Papers (1 paper)

Research

12 pages, 2092 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Induction of Collagenolytic MMP-8 and -9 Tissue Destruction Cascade in Mouth by Head and Neck Cancer Radiotherapy: A Cohort Study

by Ella Brandt, Mutlu Keskin, Ismo T. Räisänen, Taina Tervahartiala, Antti Mäkitie, İlknur Harmankaya, Didem Karaçetin, Jaana Hagström, Jaana Rautava and Timo Sorsa

Biomedicines 2024, 12(1), 27; https://doi.org/10.3390/biomedicines12010027 (registering DOI) - 21 Dec 2023

Viewed by 839

Abstract

The effect of head and neck cancer (HNC) radiotherapy (RT) on biomarkers is not known but there is a lot of potential for gaining more precise cancer treatments and less side effects. This cohort study investigated the levels and molecular forms of the matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) -8 and -9, tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase (TIMP)-1, myeloperoxidase (MPO) and interleukin (IL)-6 in mouth-rinse samples as well as the clinical periodontal status in HNC patients (n = 21) receiving RT. Complete periodontal examinations were performed pre-RT and one month after RT. Mouth-rinse samples (pre-RT, after six weeks of RT and one month after RT) were assayed using a point-of-care-kit (PerioSafe^®/ORALyzer^® (Dentognostics GmbH, Jena, Germany)) for active MMP-8 and ELISA analysis for total MMP-8 and -9, MPO, TIMP-1, and IL-6 levels. Molecular forms of MMP-9 were assessed by gelatinolytic zymography and MMP-8 by western immunoblot. Significant changes were observed between the three time points in the mean levels of active and total MMP-8, active MMP-9, and IL-6. Their levels increased during the RT and decreased after the RT period. The aMMP-8 levels stayed elevated even one month after RT compared to the pre-RT. Clinical attachment loss, probing depths, and bleeding on probing were increased between pre- and post-calculations in periodontal status. Elevated inflammatory biomarker levels together with clinical recordings strongly suggest that RT eventually increases the risk to the periodontal tissue destruction by inducing the active proteolytical MMP-cascade, and especially by prolonged activity of collagenolytic aMMP-8. Eventually, the aMMP-8 point-of-care mouth-rinse test could be an easy, early detection tool for estimating the risk for periodontal damage by the destructive MMP-cascade in HNC patients with RT treatment. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Oral Cancer: From Pathophysiology to Novel Therapeutic Approaches Volume II)

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