Concepts in understanding Oral field cancerization-a brief review

Abstract

The concept of ''field effect in cancer''Â originated in 1953 from the histopathological observations of Slaughter and colleagues regarding the occurrence of multiple primary oral squamous cell carcinomas and their local recurrences. There are two fundamental theories regarding the development of Oral field cancerization (OFC) which include the 'Classical' and the 'Clonal'mechanism. The classical view hypothesizes that the entire epithelial surface of the upper aerodigestive tract has an increased risk for the development of premalignant disorders because of multiple genetic abnormalities in the whole tissue region; owing to prolonged exposures of susceptible carcinogens as a result of tobacco or alcohol consumption. Whilst the clonal theory believes that there always exists a field with genetically altered cells having a high risk of developing premalignant and malignant disorders. Here, the developing separate tumors, from a genetically individually altered stem cell in the extended field, share the same clonal origin and some degree of genetic similarity. Modern molecular and histological technologies exploring the tissue abnormalities in OFC have been performed. Herein, we have briefly discussed regarding the concepts of field cancerization along with the various diagnostic molecular techniques and the therapeutic aspects.