Incidence and Mortality

The term “oral cancer” (OC) includes a diverse group of tumors arising from the oral cavity. Usually included are cancers of the lip, tongue, pharynx, and oral cavity. The World Health Organization (WHO) reported oral cancer as having one of the highest mortality ratios amongst all malignancies [1]. Although OC is rare and attracts little attention, it is more common than Hodgkin’s disease or tumours of brain, liver, bone, thyroid gland, stomach, ovaries, or cancer of the cervix. It ranks 12th among all cancers [2]. The vast majority of malignant neoplasms in the mouth are squamous cell carcinomas (SCC). The aetiology of OC is multifactorial. Genetic, environment, social and behavioral effects may all be implicated [3]. It is well known that alcohol and tobacco are two of the most important risk factors for development of OC. The consumption of alcohol and tobacco is closely associated not only with the development of OC, but also with the course of the disease and this consumption is associated with a poor prognosis [4]. Thus, environmental insults such as alcohol, ultraviolet light, and/or tobacco products presumably increase DNA damage, reduce murine double minute (MDM2), increase p53 expression, and thereby activate clusters of genes associated with cell growth, and/or cell death [5]. Many studies reported that, up to three-quarters of OC could be prevented by avoiding environmental factors, notably the consumption of tobacco and excess alcohol [6, 7]. The lack of public awareness of the signs, symptoms and risk factors associated with oral cancer has been reported [8]. Unfortunately, most oral cancers lack early signs [9], and despite improvements in diagnostic and therapeutic modalities, the prognosis of patients with oral malignancies has remained poor. In essence, this poor outcome is related to the majority of patients presenting at an already advanced stage of disease at the time of diagnosis [10]. Since, biopsy is a diagnostic method with limited sensitivity. Recently, a number of molecular-based diagnostic markers have been used to detect OC. Therefore, the purpose of present review was undertaken in an attempt to the incidence, mortality, risk factors, prevention, and current diagnostic markers of OC.