Preface

Oral cancer is frequently diagnosed late, when the disease has advanced with lesions that are large and deeply invasive and with metastasis to regional lymph nodes, leading to in‐ creased mortality. Moreover, late diagnosis and treatment often result in considerable mor‐ bidity of oral and maxillofacial structures and poor appearance and function following therapy. Incidence of cancer in the country has been increasing over the last few decades. This book covers the topic of oral cancer in a concise but detailed manner. The book certain‐ ly achieves its aim: enhancing knowledge of the many aspects of care and management that oral cancer encompasses. The opening chapter presents the pathogenesis of cancer by intro‐ ducing the reader to the cellular, histological, and molecular changes that occur in the dis‐ ease process. This is followed by detailed chapters on different, newer aspects of oral cancer, which will enrich all clinicians who aim to promote preventive advice. Overall, the book fulfills its purpose entirely in updating researchers on oral cancer.

This book will help researchers and clinicians in understanding the fundamentals and man‐ agement of oral cancer in individual patients.

> **Dr. S. Sundaresan M.Sc., M.Phil., Ph.D.** Associate Professor Department of Medical Reserch SRM Institute of Science and Technology India

**Chapter 1**

**Provisional chapter**

**Introductory Chapter: Head and Neck Cancer**

**Introductory Chapter: Head and Neck Cancer**

DOI: 10.5772/intechopen.86272

Cancer is the major cause of mortality in economically advanced nations, and in developing nations it is the second leading cause of death [1]. The survival rate due to the heterogeneity in treatment offered within centers across India for buccal mucosa cancer in India is 5 years ranges from 60 to 80% for stage I disease to 5 to 15% for locally progressive disease [2, 3].

Squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) develops in the oral cavity, larynx, or hypopharynx and oropharynx. In accordance with incidence rate, it is reported as the sixth leading cancer worldwide [4]. It is likely that approximately 600,000 cases have been established worldwide, and the 5-year survival rate is only 40–50% in patients with HNSCC [5]. In a 5-year period, estimated new cases of head and neck cancer were 300,000 and approximately 145,000 deaths in 2012 and 702,000 predominant cases [6]. It was reported that two-thirds of the global incidence of oral cancer occurs in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). In that, half of those cases are in South Asia. In India alone, one-fifth of the population have head and neck cancer and one-fourth of all head and neck cancer demises [6]. **Figure 1** illustrates the region

There is a prolonged preclinical phase for head and neck cancer, and also it constitutes welldocumented precancerous lesions. The precancerous lesions comprise leukoplakia, erythroplakia, oral submucous fibrosis (OSMF), lichen planus, and chronic traumatic ulcers. The frequency at annual rate was estimated to be in the range from 0.13 to 2.2% during the trans-

> © 2016 The Author(s). Licensee InTech. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

© 2019 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use,

distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Sivapatham Sundaresan and Paliarasu Rajapriya

Sivapatham Sundaresan and Paliarasu RajapriyaAdditional information is available at the end of the chapter

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.86272

**1. Introduction**

of all head and neck cancers.

**2. Pathogenesis of head and neck cancer**

formation of oral precancerous lesions to cancer [7, 8].

#### **Introductory Chapter: Head and Neck Cancer Introductory Chapter: Head and Neck Cancer**

DOI: 10.5772/intechopen.86272

Sivapatham Sundaresan and Paliarasu Rajapriya

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter Sivapatham Sundaresan and Paliarasu RajapriyaAdditional information is available at the end of the chapter

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.86272
