Molecular Biomarkers of Oral Cancer

The number of cases of oral cancer and the number of deaths has been increasing in recent years. Since the oral cavity has an important role in physiological function, early diagnosis and early treatment are required deservingly. The presence of reproducible molecular biomarkers for oral cancer helps to achieve that goal. Currently, research into various prognostic biomarkers or predictive biomarkers for oral cancer has been performed and reported. In this chapter, we summarized the results and conclusions of these researches based on Schliephake’s classification (Schliephake 2003). Among the many biomarkers reported so far, the following 17 biomarkers were summarized as those related to the enhancement of tumour growth, and the following five biomarkers are summarized for tumour invasion and metastatic potential. Enhancement of Tumour Growth Tumour Invasion and Metastatic Potential Researches on biomarkers for oral cancer are very active, but still confusing. Here, we report a part of the on-going oral cancer biomarker research.