Affiliations: [a] Department of Maxillofacial Surgery, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Kaunas, Lithuania | [b] Department of Biomedical and Dental Sciences, Morphological and Functional Images, School of Dentistry University of Messina, Messina, Italy | [c] Oral Surgery and Implant Dentistry Department, University of Granada, Granada, Spain | [d] Periodontics and Oral Medicine at University of Michigan, MI, USA | [e] Department of Dental and Oral Diseases, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Kaunas, Lithuania
Correspondence:
[*]
Corresponding author: Marco Cicciù, Department of Biomedical and Dental Sciences, Morphological and Functional Images, School of Dentistry University of Messina, Italy Policlinico G. Martino, Via Consolare Valeria, 98100 Me, Italy. Tel.: +39 090221692; E-mail:mcicciu@unime.it
Abstract: INTRODUCTION: Nearly half of the head and neck cancer cases are
diagnosed in late stages. Traditional screening modalities have many
disadvantages. The aim of the present article was to review the scientific
literature about novel head and neck cancer diagnostics - epigenetic
biomarkers. EVIDENCE ACQUISITION: A comprehensive review of the current
literature was conducted according to the PRISMA guidelines by accessing the
NCBI PubMed database. Authors conducted the search of articles in English
language published from 2004 to 2015. EVIDENCE SYNTHESIS: A total of thirty three relevant studies were
included in the review. Fifteen of them concerned DNA methylation
alterations, nine evaluation of abundancies in histone expressions and nine
miRNA expression changes in HNC. CONCLUSIONS: Considerable number of epigenetic biomarkers have been
identified in both tumor tissue and salivary samples. Genes with best
diagnostic effectiveness rates and further studying prospects were: TIMP3,
DCC, DAPK, CDH1, CCNA1, AIM1, MGMT, HIC1, PAX1, PAX5, ZIC4, p16, EDNRB,
KIF1A, MINT31, CD44, RARβ , ECAD. Individual histone and miRNA
alterations tend to be hnc specific. Prognostic values of separate
biomarkers are ambiguous. No established standards for molecular assay of
head and neck cancer was found in order to elude the paradoxical results and
discrepancies in separate trials.
Keywords: Head and neck cancer, DNA methylation, head and neck cancer histone, head and neck cancer miRNA
