Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue, “Malignant and Potentially Malignant Disorders of the Oral Cavity: Updates from Pathogenesis to Therapy”, will focus on the pathophysiology, diagnosis, prognosis, and therapy of malignant and potentially malignant disorders of the oral cavity, but will not be limited to only these aspects.

This Special Issue is open to both clinical and pre-clinical research using multi-disciplinary approaches and is open to both original articles and reviews.

Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) represents the most frequent malignant tumor of the oral cavity, with an estimated annual incidence of 529,000 new cases (including cases in the oral cavity and pharynx) and more than 300,000 deaths. Recent trends highlight an increasing incidence in young women. Alcohol and smoking habits are still the main risk factors, although the role of Human Papilloma Virus has recently been debated. At advanced stages, the five-year survival is about 50%, so prevention is strongly recommended. New trends in therapy at advanced stages, such as immunotherapy, have also been introduced in the last few years.

Often, OSCC derives from oral potentially malignant disorders (OPMD), including mucosal lesions, which have a greater chance of transforming into cancer, e.g., oral leukoplakia, oral erythroplakia, palatal lesions in reverse smokers, oral lichen planus, oral submucous fibrosis, actinic keratosis, and discoid lupus erythematosus. No reliable prognostic factor nor treatment is currently available to avoid their risk of malignant transformation, and the need to clarify the “field cancerization” process is urgent.

Oral conditions and their associations with other systemic malignant and chronic inflammatory diseases will be considered as well.

Dr. Elena Varoni
Dr. Lia Rimondini
Guest Editors

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• oral squamous cell carcinoma
• leukoplakia
• erythroplakia
• immunotherapy
• smoking
• human papilloma virus
• field cancerization
• oral microbiome

• Malignant and Potentially Malignant Disorders of the Oral Cavity: Updates from Pathogenesis to Therapy in Biomedicines (11 articles)