About this Research Topic

Background

Multifaceted management of cancer cannot be successful without incorporating measurable and quantifiable biological biomarkers which include specific enzyme concentration, specific hormone concentration, specific imaging characteristics, specific gene phenotype, genomic, metabolomic, and expression profiles of tumors. These biomarkers serve as indices for cancer risk estimation, prognostication, and treatment monitoring in head and neck cancer should be continually investigated.

Head and neck cancers (excluding thyroid cancer) account for 4.9% of total cancers diagnosed worldwide. P16 (INK4A) is an established prognostic biomarker in oropharyngeal cancer and testing for it has been mandatory in this subgroup of cancer. Nevertheless, emerging evidence has also supported that P16 has similar prognostication in non-oropharyngeal cancer such as hypopharyngeal, laryngeal and oral squamous cell carcinoma. Over the past few years, rapid advances in genome analysis techniques have opened new possibilities for studying transcriptomes. In 2015, The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) network demonstrated the somatic genome alterations from 279 HNSCC, revealing the genome alterations in P16-positive or smoking-related P16-negative HNSCC, as well as the therapeutic candidate alterations. Moreover, increasing evidence has suggested the significant role of aberrantly expressed microRNAs or long non-coding RNAs in head and neck cancer. Furthermore, molecular characterization of various head and neck cancer including non-squamous cell carcinoma will provide a better understanding of the etiology and therapeutic implication of head and neck cancer.

In this Research Topic, contributions are encouraged to discuss:
- New insights into genetic alterations or novel biological mechanisms underlying the carcinogenesis of head and neck cancer
- Immunohistochemical histopathologic biomarkers for squamous cell carcinogenesis
- Molecular biomarkers, genomic (e.g., mRNA and long non-coding RNA) or metabolomic, or expression profiles for head and neck cancer screening and prognosis
- Emerging, candidate or novel biomarkers in silico or in vivo research
- Technological advances in biomarker discovery
- Biomarkers indicative of resistance to chemotherapeutic or radiation therapy
- Outcome biomarkers (incl. prognostic and relapse)
- Imaging biomarkers of hypoxia or stemness in head and neck cancer using positron emission tomography, single photon emission computed tomography or functional magnetic resonance imaging or other emerging imaging biomarkers
- Serum cell-free DNA as a biomarker for head and neck cancer
- Circulating, tumor tissue, or archival cancer stem cell biomarkers for head and neck cancer

Keywords: head and neck cancer, esophageal cancer, biosignatures, cancer biology, cancer therapeutics, microRNA, lncRNA, oral cavity cancer, oropharyngeal cancer, tongue cancer, laryngeal cancer, hypopharyngeal cancer, thoracic oncology, Surgical oncology, mini-invasive surgery, biomarkers, cancer imaging

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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