Head and neck cancer, including oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC), is the sixth leading malignancy worldwide. OSCC is an aggressive tumor and its prognosis has exhibited little improvement in the last three decades. Comprehensive elucidation of OSCC’s molecular mechanism is imperative for early detection and treatment, improving patient survival. Based on broadly accepted notions, OSCC arises from multiple genetic alterations caused by chronic exposure to carcinogens. In 2011, research revealed 10 key alterations fundamental to cancer cell development: sustaining proliferative signaling, evading growth suppressors, avoiding immune destruction, activating invasion and metastasis, tumor-promoting inflammation, enabling replicative immortality, inducing angiogenesis, genome instability and mutation, resisting cell death, and deregulating energetics. This review describes molecular pathological findings on conventional and novel hallmarks of OSCC prognostic factors. In addition, the review summarizes the functions and roles of several molecules as novel OSCC prognosticators.

Sugiura T, et al. J Periodontal Implant Sci. 2016 Jun;46(3):152-165. https://doi.org/10.5051/jpis.2016.46.3.152

Lower third molar extraction is the most common surgical treatment among routine dental and oral surgical procedures. while the surgical procedures for lower third molar extraction are well established, the difficulty of tooth extraction and the frequency of postoperative complications differ depending on the patient’s background. To establish a management protocol for the lower third molars, the prevalence of and risk factors for postoperative complications after lower third molar extraction were investigated in a large number of Japanese patients in a multicenter prospective study. During 6 consecutive months in 2020, 1826 lower third molar extractions were performed at the 20 participating institutions. The medical records of the patients were reviewed, and relevant data were extracted. The prevalence of and risk factors for postoperative complications were analyzed. The prevalence of postoperative complications after lower third molar extraction was 10.0%. Multivariate analysis indicated that age (≤32 vs >32, odds ratio [OR]: 1.428, 95% confidence interval [95% CI]: 1.040–1.962, P < .05), the radiographic anatomical relationship between the tooth roots and mandibular canal (overlapping of the roots and canal vs no close anatomical relationship between the roots and the superior border of the canal, OR: 2.078, 95% CI: 1.333–3.238, P < .01; overlapping of the roots and canal vs roots impinging on the superior border of the canal, OR: 1.599, 95% CI: 1.050–2.435, P < .05), and impaction depth according to the Pell and Gregory classification (position C vs position A, OR: 3.7622, 95% CI: 2.079–6.310, P < .001; position C vs position B, OR: 2.574, 95% CI: 1.574–4.210, P < .001) are significant independent risk factors for postoperative complications after lower third molar extraction. These results suggested that higher age and a deeply impacted tooth might be significant independent risk factors for postoperative complications after lower third molar extraction.

Head and neck cancers, including oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC), are the sixth most common malignancies worldwide. OSCC frequently leads to oral dysfunction, which worsens a patient’s quality of life. Moreover, its prognosis remains poor. Unlike normal cells, tumor cells preferentially metabolize glucose by aerobic glycolysis. Pyruvate kinase (PK) catalyzes the final step in glycolysis, and the transition from PKM1 to PKM2 is observed in many cancer cells. However, little is known about PKM expression and function in OSCC. In this study, we investigated the expression of PKM in OSCC specimens and performed a functional analysis of human OSCC cells. We found that the PKM2/PKM1 ratio was higher in OSCC cells than in adjacent normal mucosal cells and in samples obtained from dysplasia patients. Furthermore, PKM2 expression was strongly correlated with OSCC tumor progression on immunohistochemistry. PKM2 expression was higher during cell growth, invasion, and apoptosis in HSC3 cells, which show a high energy flow and whose metabolism depends on aerobic glycolysis and oxidative phosphorylation. PKM2 expression was also associated with the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and integration of glutamine into lactate. Our results suggested that PKM2 has a variety of tumor progressive functions in OSCC cells.

Sugiura T, et al. J Periodontal Implant Sci. 2017 Aug;47(4):251-262. https://doi.org/10.5051/jpis.2017.47.4.251