Head and neck cancer, including oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC), is the sixth leading malignancy worldwide. OSCC is an aggressive tumor and its prognosis has exhibited little improvement in the last three decades. Comprehensive elucidation of OSCC's molecular mechanism is imperative for early detection and treatment, improving patient survival. Based on broadly accepted notions, OSCC arises from multiple genetic alterations caused by chronic exposure to carcinogens. In 2011, research revealed 10 key alterations fundamental to cancer cell development: sustaining proliferative signaling, evading growth suppressors, avoiding immune destruction, activating invasion and metastasis, tumor-promoting inflammation, enabling replicative immortality, inducing angiogenesis, genome instability and mutation, resisting cell death, and deregulating energetics. This review describes molecular pathological findings on conventional and novel hallmarks of OSCC prognostic factors. In addition, the review summarizes the functions and roles of several molecules as novel OSCC prognosticators.
Keywords: hallmarks of cancer; oral cancer; prognostic factors.