Background

Head and neck cancers are the seventh most common type of cancer worldwide, with almost half of the cases affecting the oral cavity. Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is the most common form of oral cancer, showing poor prognosis and high mortality. OSCC molecular pathogenesis is complex, resulting from a wide range of events that involve the interplay between genetic mutations and altered levels of transcripts, proteins, and metabolites. Metabolomics is a recently developed sub-area of omics sciences focused on the comprehensive analysis of small molecules involved in several biological pathways by high throughput technologies.

Aim of review

This review summarizes and evaluates studies focused on the metabolomics analysis of OSCC and oral premalignant disorders to better interpret the complex process of oral carcinogenesis. Additionally, the metabolic biomarkers signatures identified so far are also included. Moreover, we discuss the limitations of these studies and make suggestions for future investigations.

Key scientific concepts

Although many questions about the metabolic features of OSCC have already been answered in metabolomic studies, further validation and optimization are still required to translate these findings into clinical applications.

中文翻译：

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口腔鳞状细胞癌的代谢景观

背景

头颈癌是全球第七大最常见的癌症类型，几乎一半的病例影响口腔。口腔鳞状细胞癌（OSCC）是最常见的口腔癌，预后差，死亡率高。OSCC 分子发病机制很复杂，是由涉及基因突变与转录本、蛋白质和代谢物水平改变之间相互作用的广泛事件引起的。代谢组学是最近发展起来的组学科学的一个子领域，重点是通过高通量技术对涉及多种生物途径的小分子进行综合分析。

审查的目的

本综述总结并评估了专注于 OSCC 和口腔癌前病变代谢组学分析的研究，以更好地解释口腔癌变的复杂过程。此外，还包括迄今为止鉴定的代谢生物标志物特征。此外，我们讨论了这些研究的局限性，并为未来的调查提出建议。

关键科学概念

尽管代谢组学研究已经回答了关于 OSCC 代谢特征的许多问题，但仍需要进一步验证和优化将这些发现转化为临床应用。