Background: Oral cancer is a high incidence cancer with well-established risk factors including tobacco, alcohol, areca nut, and HR-HPV 16/18. Additional risk factors such as Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with genetic susceptibility, disease progression and prognosis. A comprehensive review of clinically relevant SNPs is synopsized in the current article.
Methods:The PubMed repository was primarily used to retrieve articles using a combined keyword search. We selected 81 eligible studies examining association of SNPs with oral cancer, published in peer reviewed journals, between January 2000 and March 2022, with a focus on SNPs and prediction of oral cancer survival indicating response to therapy.Results: Twelve SNPs including ERCC5 rs17655, ERCC1 rs735482, TP53 rs1042522, MDM2 rs2279744, MTHFR rs1801133, MTHFR rs1801131, MSH2 rs3732183, MLH1 rs1800734, FADS1 rs174549, XPD rs13181, XPD rs1799793, and TGFBR1 rs33438 emerged as potential SNP markers for prediction of oral cancer survival and response to therapy.
Conclusion:The risk-loci may be indicated potential biomarkers for early oral cancer detection, better patient prognosis and also serve as molecular targets for novel therapies.