About this Research Topic

Background

Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC), is the 17th most prevalent cancer worldwide. OSCC incidence is globally increasing, and despite improvements in treatment, it is still characterized by rather poor survival. Currently, primary treatment of OSCC patients consists of surgery and (chemo) radiotherapy, either alone or in combination. Other approaches, such as targeted- and immunotherapy, also represent approved modalities, although they remain inconsistently applied as first-line treatment for OSCC patients. Unfortunately, these treatments offer limited efficacy, with a five-year survival among OSCC patients reaching ~50%.

Angiogenesis is a hallmark of cancer and it is crucial for tumor growth, invasion, and metastasis formation. Several pathways are involved in mediating angiogenesis, and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) pathway is the most important one. Two major categories of agents have been developed to target VEGF pathway: antibody-based agents and VEGF receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs). Antiangiogenic agents have been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (US-FDA) for treating solid tumors, including colorectal cancer, renal cell carcinoma, ovarian cancer, gastric cancer, and thyroid cancer. OSCC is a highly vascularized tumor but despite the crucial role of angiogenesis in OSCC, there is no antiangiogenic agent in clinical use and no vascular marker is approved as prognostic marker for this patient population. However, the knowledge in this field is still growing and there is large hope of further development. The promising clinical trials results of endostatin (an angiogenesis inhibitor) is a good example of this.

This Research Topic will cover topics related to angiogenesis and tumor related vessels in oral cancer. We hope to provide the most recent and novel knowledge in this growing field.

We welcome high-quality original research articles and reviews involving observational and experimental data of basic and clinical research. The scope includes different areas of interest, such as, but not limited to: epidemiology, clinics, histopathology, immunohistochemistry, bioinformatics, digital pathology, cell and molecular biology (including genomics, epigenomics, transcriptomics, proteomics and metabolomics).

Studies are not limited to oral squamous cell carcinomas, since studies involving tumors of the head and neck area will also be considered.

Image credit: http://www.scientificanimations.com/wiki-images/

Keywords: oral cancer, angiogenesis, vessels, angiogenesis inhibitors, biomarkers

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