Quercetin as a Therapeutic Agent for Oral Cancer: Current Evidence and Future Directions

Oral cancer, specifically oral squamous cell carcinoma, is rapidly progressive, with a high recurrence rate and grave prognosis. Treatment modalities like surgery, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy are customarily associated with noxious side effects as well as drug resistance. The food constituent flavonoid quercetin has been identified as anticancer through several mechanisms, including apoptosis induction, suppression of metastasis, cell cycle arrest, and chemosensitization. Its clinical application is, however, restricted by poor systemic absorption. Novel nano-formulations such as liposomes, polymeric nanoparticles, etc., have emerged for improving the stability, bioavailability, and therapeutic action of quercetin. Artificial intelligence has also been reported to be of potential use in predicting patient response to quercetin, recognizing new molecular targets, and customizing treatment regimens. Future research should be conducted with clinical trials to establish the effectiveness of quercetin as an adjuvant treatment and fine-tune targeted delivery systems for it. There is a therapeutic promise for quercetin across multiple types of oral cancer due to its multi-targeting potential. Quercetin, in combination with traditional and immunotherapeutic strategies, represents a promising new strategy with the potential to overcome treatment barriers and reduce toxicity in oral cancer management.