Better insights into the molecular changes involved in virus-associated and -independent head and neck cancer may advance our knowledge of HNC carcinogenesis and identify critical disease biomarkers.
We also highlight the importance of saliva as a proximal and easily accessible bio-fluid for HNC detection, and propose that salivary vesicles might serve as an alternative model in the discovery of novel HNC biomarkers.
We previously demonstrated that 15-LOX-2 is significantly reduced in head and neck carcinoma and restoration of 15-LOX-2 expression results in tumor inhibition in HNC.
Most of the recently established head and neck carcinoma cell lines (22/25), corresponding tumour (5/7) and dermal (2/2) fibroblasts, commercial tongue carcinoma (HSC-3 and SCC-25), and transformed keratinocyte cell lines of the tongue (IHGK) and skin (HaCaT) expressed MMP-8 mRNA analysed by the PCR method.