Oral Cancer and Its Surveillance

Oral cancer is fifth most common cause of death in India. Oral cancer includes a group of neoplasms affecting any region of the oral cavity, pharyngeal regions and salivary glands. Cancer development has been defined as a multistep process in which somatic cells first undergo an initiating event i.e environmental insult and then a second or promoting event. Chronic inflammatory conditions help to establish a tumor microenvironment full of deranged proliferative signaling networks. Cancer immune surveillance is considered to be an important host protection process to inhibit carcinogenesis and to maintain cellular homeostasis.