BackgroundTo determine the prevalence and clinicopathologic features of the oral cancer patients.Material and MethodsBiopsy records of the participating institutions were reviewed for oral cancer cases diagnosed from 2005 to 2014. Demographic data and site of the lesions were collected. Sites of the lesion were subdivided into lip, tongue, floor of the mouth, gingiva, alveolar mucosa, palate, buccal/labial mucosa, maxilla and mandible. Oral cancer was subdivided into 7 categories: epithelial tumors, salivary gland tumors, hematologic tumors, bone tumors, mesenchymal tumors, odontogenic tumors, and others. Data were analyzed by descriptive statistics using SPSS software version 17.0.ResultsOf the 474,851 accessioned cases, 6,151 cases (1.30%) were diagnosed in the category of oral cancer. The mean age of the patients was 58.37±15.77 years. A total of 4,238 cases (68.90%) were diagnosed in males, whereas 1911 cases (31.07%) were diagnosed in females. The male-to-female ratio was 2.22:1. The sites of predilection for oral cancer were tongue, labial/buccal mucosa, gingiva, palate, and alveolar mucosa, respectively. The three most common oral cancer in the descending order of frequency were squamous cell carcinoma, non-Hodgkin lymphoma and mucoepidermoid carcinoma.ConclusionsAlthough the prevalence of oral cancer is not high compared to other entities, oral cancer pose significant mortality and morbidity in the patients, especially when discovered late in the course of the disease. This study highlights some anatomical locations where oral cancers are frequently encountered. As a result, clinicians should pay attention to not only teeth, but oral mucosa especially in the high prevalence area as well since early detection of precancerous lesions or cancers in the early stage increase the chance of patient being cured and greatly reduce the mortality and morbidity. This study also shows some differences between pediatric and elderly oral cancer patients as well as between Asian and non-Asian oral cancer patients. Key words:Oral cancer, prevalence, clinic-pathologic features, retrospective study.

The incidence and mortality rate of oral cancer continue to rise, partly due to the lack of effective early diagnosis and increasing environmental exposure to cancer-causing agents. To identify new markers for oral cancer, we used a sialylation probe to investigate the glycoproteins differentially expressed on oral cancer cells. Of the glycoproteins identified, B7 Homolog 3 (B7-H3) was significantly overexpressed in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC), and its overexpression correlated with larger tumor size, advanced clinical stage, and low survival rate in OSCC patients. In addition, knockdown of B7-H3 suppressed tumor cell proliferation, and restoration of B7-H3 expression enhanced tumor growth. It was also found that the N-glycans of B7-H3 from Ca9-22 oral cancer cells contain the terminal α-galactose and are more diverse with higher fucosylation and better interaction with DC-SIGN [DC-specific intercellular adhesion molecule-3 (ICAM-3)-grabbing nonintegrin] and Langerin on immune cells than that from normal cells, suggesting that the glycans on B7-H3 may also play an important role in the disease.CD276 | proliferation | glycan sequencing | terminal α-galactose | fucose

Oral lichen planus (OLP) is a chronic inflammatory oral mucosal disease that occurs more frequently in middle-aged and elderly female patients. Previous studies indicate that OLP is a T-cell dysfunction-induced localized autoimmune disease. Clinically, six types of OLP, namely reticular, papular, plaque-like, atrophic/erosive, ulcerative, and bullous types, can be identified. OLP more commonly affects buccal mucosa, tongue, and gingiva. It always has a bilateral and symmetric distribution of the oral lesions. Plaque-like and atrophic/erosive OLP may be misdiagnosed as oral leukoplakia and oral erythroleukoplakia, respectively. Our previous study found serum autoantibodies in 195 (60.9%) of the 320 OLP patients. Specific serum anti-nuclear, anti-smooth muscle, anti-mitochondrial, gastric parietal cell, thyroglobulin, and thyroid microsomal autoantibodies are present in 28.1%, 8.4%, 1.6%, 26.3%, 21.3%, and 24.4% of 320 OLP patients, respectively. Furthermore, we also discovered that 21.9%, 13.6%, 7.1%, 0.3%, and 14.8% of 352 OLP patients have hemoglobin, iron, vitamin B12, and folic acid deficiencies, and abnormally high serum homocysteine level, respectively. Therefore, it is very important to examine the serum autoantibody, hematinic and homocysteine levels in OLP patients before starting the treatments for OLP patients. Because OLP is an immunologically-mediated disease, corticosteroids are the drugs of choice for treatment of OLP.

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