Heera R¹, Padmakumar SK², Shinu Koshy³, Divya KT³ and Anu Andrews³

¹Professor, Head of the Department of Oral Pathology and Microbiology, Government Dental College, Trivandrum, Kerala, India
²Professor, Department of Oral Pathology and Microbiology, Government Dental College, Trivandrum, Kerala, India
³Post Graduate Students, Department of Oral Pathology and Microbiology, Government Dental College, Trivandrum, Kerala, India

*Corresponding Author: Anu Andrews, Post Graduate Student, Department of Oral Pathology and Microbiology, Government Dental College, Trivandrum, Kerala, India.

Received: May 31, 2018; Published: July 12, 2018

Citation: Anu Andrews., et al. “Field Cancerisation in Oral Cavity: Recent Concepts and Review with Special Reference to Cancer Stem Cells”. Acta Scientific Dental Sciences 2.8 (2018).

Abstract

  The concept of field cancerisation was conceived by Danley. P. Slaughter and co-workers in 1953. Oral field cancerisation can be defined as the presence of one or more areas consisting of epithelial cells that have cancer-associated genetic or epigenetic alterations. Rather than local recurrences, development of second primary tumours (SPT) strengthens the concept of field cancerisation. The occurrence of multiple tumours can be substantiated by 2 competing hypothesis: Polyclonal theory/Classic theory, Monoclonal theory/Alternative theory. The clinical implication of field cancerisation lies in the identification of peri-tumoral cancer field which deceives a pathologist by their naïve histology. These peri-tumoral cancer fields can be sculptured out by the presence of certain molecular markers. Cancer stem cells (CSC) are a small subset of cells which were found to be highly tumorigenic with capability of self-renewal and behaviour akin to tumour progenitor cells. Thus, an altered field is the forerunner of a full-blown carcinoma and detecting these areas through routine histology and molecular analysis is of utmost importance in patients especially in post treatment phase which may spare the patient of mortality and morbidity of advanced cancer treatments.

Keywords: Field Cancerisation; Second Primary Tumors; Polyclonal and Monoclonal Theories; Oral Cavity; Markers in Field Cancerisation;Cancer Stem Cells

Copyright: © 2018 Anu Andrews., et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.