Oncogenomics/Proteomics of Head and Neck Cancer

Head and neck squamous cell carcinomas (HNSCC) develop in the mucosal linings of the upper aerodigestive tract. Despite the fact that the disease develops in a single tissue in a relatively small anatomical region, it is remarkably heterogeneous. At present two separate disease entities are distinguished: HNSCCs caused by human papillomavirus (HPV) infection and those that do not contain HPV. However, multiple high-throughput biomolecular methods that could be summarized as ‘…omics’ have revealed additional levels of complexity in head and neck cancer that are additionally changing the molecular landscape. Implementation of these molecular insights in clinical care is hampered at present by small sample size of the studies, differences in technical platforms exploited, tumor heterogeneity and complexity in computational approaches. However even with the newest single cell techniques these molecular tumor classifications seem robust. Although these developments demand adaptation of the classical genetic progression models that initially determined the concepts of carcinogenesis, they will provide an opportunity for better stratification of patients for prognosis and personalized treatment approaches.