Metabolic biomarker in oral squamous cell carcinoma - a comprehensive review

Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is one of the most common malignant tumors worldwide with an increasing incidence. The surgical treatment is challenging and often requires the entire repertoire of plastic surgery. Diagnostically only a few crucial parameters are in use and even less for an individual and specific drug targeting. An individualised prognostic calculation is unavoidable to be able to adapt very complex surgical processes to an acceptable level. Unfortunately, the classic TNM system and grading are no longer sufficient, especially for individualized prognosis. Moreover, despite advances in treatment, studies have shown that the prognosis of patients with OSCC in terms of survival rate has not improved significantly, which is mainly due to the presence of treatment-resistant OSCC. Therefore, the identification of new, reliable biomarkers for early diagnosis and drug targets of OSCC is urgently needed. Meanwhile, the abundance of potential biomarkers for OSCC is difficult to keep track of. Therefore, the aim of the article was to provide an overview of articles listed in Pubmed^® that deal with the topic of biomarkers in oral squamous cell carcinoma, focusing in particular on the topic metabolism. Another question of this study was to set the focus on essential additive metabolic biomarkers, which can also be easily used in clinical routine.