Aetiology of Oral Cavity Cancer

Oral cancer is a serious and growing health problem in many parts of the globe. Most head and neck cancers are squamous cell carcinomas, and the majority are oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) [1, 2]. The origin of OSCC is oral keratinocytes, and it is caused, as any other cancer, by DNA mutations which may be spontaneous but increased by exposure to a range of mutagens that could be chemical, physical or microbial. Cells with genetic mutations can progress from normal cells to pre-malignant or potentially malignant cells that have the ability to proliferate in a less-controlled fashion than normal [2]. Consequently, the cells become autonomous and cancer results.