Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms in Cytokine Genes are Associated with the Susceptibility to Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Abstract

Oral cancer, a subdivision of Head and Neck Cancers, includes cancers of the lips, tongue, buccal mucosa, gingiva, retromolar trigone, and hard palate (Ferlay et al., 2021). It is the most common type of cancer among men in the Indian subcontinent. According to GLOBOCAN 2020, more than 375,000 new cases of cancer of the lip, tongue, and mouth, and 177,000 deaths have been reported worldwide (Ferlay et al., 2021). South-Central Asia and parts of Oceania contribute to half of the total cases of cancer of the lip, tongue, and mouth; and Papua New Guinea, Pakistan, and India have the highest incidence (Miranda-Filho and Bray, 2020). More than 90% of oral cancers are oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) in origin (Miranda-Filho and Bray, 2020). In India, more than 135, 000 new cases were reported, and over 75, 000 people died due to OSCC in 2020 (Ferlay et al., 2021;Miranda-Filho and Bray, 2020).