Emerging Strategies against Head & Neck Cancer – A Review
Jasleen Grover, Mahima Rakheja, Nirmala N Rao, Ankur Singh, Monica Charlotte Solomon · IOSR Journal of Dental and Medical Sciences · 2014
Cancer is attributed to be the second most common cause of morbidity and mortality in the world today after cardiovascular problems.Oral cancer comprises of a significant component of the global burden of cancer with an annual incidence of over 300,000 cases.Though efforts have been directed to tackle and curb the spread of cancer; little progress has been made in the regard and it continues to pose a threat.Numerous study methods have come to foray assisting and paving way to arrest cancer.Several new stream of drugs targeting molecular signalling pathways like those of growth signal transduction machinery in cancer cells, processes involved in cellular invasion and metastatic spread, apoptosis and the cell cycle, and tumour-related angiogenesis.Other approaches like tumour-specific antigens, targeted poisons, immunotherapy, gene therapy, telomerase therapy, DNA damage repair and nanotechnology have also come to horizon.With the advancements, in the fields molecular and biochemical analyses it has been proposed that drugs can alter and simultaneously activate several pathways that either positively or negatively regulate cell death induction.This review explains the different processes and pathways that can be targeted to strategize a treatment against head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.