Head and neck cancer (HNC) is an ascending and agressive disease. The search for new molecular markers is emerging to solve difficulties in diagnosis, risk management, prognosis and effectiveness of treatments. Proteins related to apoptotic machinery have been identified as potential biomarkers. Caspase 3 is the main effector caspase and has a key role in apoptosis. The objective of this systematic review and meta-analysis is to review studies that analyze changes in Caspase 3 and Cleaved Caspase 3 expression both in oral premalignant disorders (OPMD) as well as in head and neck cancer (HNC). This study also proposes to review the prognostic values associated with HNC according to the expression of Caspase 3. Medline (via PubMed), EMBASE, Scopus, Cochrane, Web of Science and Grey Literature Database were screened from inception to june of 2022 and 18 studies were selected and 8 were included in the prognostic meta-analysis. Results related to the comparison of Caspase 3 expression demonstrated similar expression of Caspase 3 in HNC, with an average of 51.9% (9.5–98.1) showing high/moderate expression compared to 45.7% (14.6–84.7) in OPMD. Of interest, Cleaved Caspase 3 resulted incresed in HNC when compared with OPMD, being 73.3% (38.6–88.3) versus 22.9% (7.1–38.7). Pooled Fixed effect of HR values (95% CI) for OS related to Caspase 3 IHC expression in HNC patients was 1.48 (95% CI 0.95–2.28); also, the rate of heterogeneity was low, as revealed by I² = 31%. For DFS was 1.07 (95% CI 0.79–1.45) with I² = 0% and DSS showed a HR of 0.88 (95% CI 0.69–1.12) with I² = 37%. Caspase 3 and Cleaved Caspase 3 expression could be linked with malignancy progression, but the expression of Caspase 3 did not influence the prognosis of patients with HNC.

The aim of this present study was to comprehensively describe somatic DNA alterations and transcriptional alterations in the last extension of the HNSCC subsets in TCGA, encompassing a total of 528 tumours. In order to achieve this goal, transcriptional analysis, functional enrichment assays, survival analysis, somatic copy number alteration analysis and somatic alteration analysis were carried out. A total of 3491 deregulated genes were found in HNSCC patients, and the functional analysis carried out determined that tissue development and cell differentiation were the most relevant signalling pathways in upregulated and downregulated genes, respectively. Somatic copy number alteration analysis showed a “top five” altered HNSCC genes: CDKN2A (deleted in 32.03% of patients), CDKN2B (deleted in 28.34% of patients), PPFIA1 (amplified in 26.02% of patients), FADD (amplified in 25.63% of patients) and ANO1 (amplified in 25.44% of patients). Somatic mutations analysis revealed TP53 mutation in 72% of the tumour samples followed by TTN (39%), FAT1 (23%) and MUC16 (19%). Another interesting result is the mutual exclusivity pattern that was discovered between the TP53 and PIK3CA mutations, and the co-occurrence of CDKN2A with the TP53 and FAT1 alterations. On analysis to relate differential expression genes and somatic copy number alterations, some genes were overexpressed and amplified, for example, FOXL2, but other deleted genes also showed overexpression, such as CDKN2A. Survival analysis revealed that overexpression of some oncogenes, such as EGFR, CDK6 or CDK4 were associated with poorer prognosis tumours. These new findings help us to develop new therapies and programs for the prevention of HNSCC.

The Global Burden of Oral Diseases affects 3.5 billion people worldwide, representing the number of people affected by the burden of untreated dental caries, severe periodontal disease, and edentulism. Thus, much more efforts in terms of diagnostics and treatments must be provided in the fight of these outcomes. In this sense, recently, the study of saliva as biological matrix has been identified as a new landmark initiative in the search of novel and useful biomarkers to prevent and diagnose these conditions. Specifically, saliva is a rich reservoir of different proteins and peptides and accessible due to recent advances in molecular biology and specially in targeted and unbiased proteomics technologies. Nonetheless, emerging barriers are an obstacle to the study of the salivary proteome in an effective way. This review aims at giving an overall perspective of salivary biomarkers identified in several oral diseases by means of molecular biology approaches.

The aim of this systematic review was to investigate the association between periodontal disease (PD) and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), and its two major forms Crohn’s disease (CD) and ulcerati...

Chronic hyperplastic candidiasis (CHC) is a prototypical oral lesion caused by chronic Candida infection. A major controversy surrounding CHC is whether this oral lesion owns malignant transformation (MT) potential. The aim of the present study was to evaluate current evidence on the MT of CHC and to determine the variables which have the greatest influence on cancer development. Bibliographical searches included PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, Scopus and LILACS. The cohort studies and case series used to investigate the MT of CHC were deemed suitable for inclusion. The quality of the enrolled studies was measured by the Joanna Briggs Institute scale. Moreover, we undertook subgroup analyses, assessed small study effects, and conducted sensitivity analyses. From 338 studies, nine were finally included for qualitative/quantitative analysis. The overall MT rate for CHC across all studies was 12.1% (95% confidential interval, 4.1–19.8%). Subgroup analysis showed that the MT rate increased when pooled analysis was restricted to poor quality studies. It remains complex to affirm whether CHC is an individual and oral, potentially malignant disorder according to the retrieved evidence. Prospective cohort studies to define the natural history of CHC and a consensus statement to clarify a proper set of diagnostic criteria are strongly needed. PROSPERO ID: CRD42022319572.