ABSTRACT
Squamous cell carcinoma of the oral cavity is associated with severe disease-and treatmentrelated morbidity and a poor prognosis that has not improved significantly over the last three decades1,2.Tobacco smoking is the major cause of this disease3. Patients who have oral leukoplakia with aneuploidy, which is a marker of genetic instability, have an 80% risk of invasive oral cancer4 that shows frequent relapses and confers a 70% risk of death within 5 years5,6. Surgical excision does not reduce the high risk of cancer or cancer death associated with aggressive, frequently multifocal aneuploid oral leukoplakia5. Smoking cessation may offer some protection against this aggressive disease7, but smoking cessation is often difficult to achieve or sustain8-10. Therefore, there is an unmet need for new treatment strategies, such as chemoprevention, to improve our control of the carcinogenic effects of tobacco smoke in the oral cavity, especially in cases associated with aneuploid precursor lesions11-13.
