ABSTRACT

Introduction: Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) ranks among the top 10 leading causes of cancer worldwide, with 5-year survival rate of about 50%, high lymph node metastasis, and relapse rates. The OSCC diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment are mostly based on the clinical TNM classification. There is an urgent need for the discovery of biomarkers and therapeutic targets to assist in the clinical decision-making process.

Areas covered: We summarize proteomic studies of the OSCC tumor, immune microenvironment, potential liquid biopsy sites, and post-translational modifications trying to retrieve information in the discovery and verification or (pre)validation phases. The search strategy was based on the combination of MeSH terms and expert refinement.

Expert opinion: Untargeted combined with targeted proteomics are strategies that provide reliable and reproducible quantitation of proteins and are the methods of choice of many groups worldwide. Undoubtedly, proteomics has been contributing to the understanding of OSCC progression and uncovers potential candidates as biomarker or therapeutic targets. Nevertheless, none of these targets are available in the clinical practice yet. The scientific community needs to overcome the limitations by investing in robust experimental designs to strengthen the value of the findings, leveraging the translation of knowledge, and further supporting clinical decisions.

摘要

简介：口腔鳞状细胞癌（OSCC）位居全球癌症的前10位，5年生存率约50%，淋巴结转移率高，复发率高。OSCC的诊断、预后和治疗主要基于临床TNM分类。迫切需要发现生物标志物和治疗靶点以协助临床决策过程。

涵盖的领域：我们总结了 OSCC 肿瘤、免疫微环境、潜在液体活检部位以及试图在发现和验证或（预）验证阶段检索信息的翻译后修饰的蛋白质组学研究。搜索策略基于 MeSH 术语和专家细化的组合。

专家意见：非靶向结合靶向蛋白质组学是提供可靠且可重复的蛋白质定量的策略，是全球许多群体的选择方法。毫无疑问，蛋白质组学一直有助于理解 OSCC 的进展，并揭示了作为生物标志物或治疗靶点的潜在候选者。然而，这些目标都没有在临床实践中可用。科学界需要通过投资稳健的实验设计来克服这些限制，以增强研究结果的价值，利用知识的转化，并进一步支持临床决策。