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🗺️ Disease Atlas · Gastrointestinal disease

oral cavity cancer

A primary or metastatic malignant neoplasm involving the oral cavity. The majority are squamous cell carcinomas.

🔔 Follow weekly
🧬6103genes / proteins with evidence
💊21drugs and clinical candidates
🧪12+recruiting trials worldwide
✅5phase 2/3
📈11phase 2
🧬

Understand oral cavity cancer

Cancer · Cells that grow out of control
🎓 Learn more

What it is

Oral cancer is cancer of the mouth. It is a type of head and neck cancer. Most oral cancers are squamous cell cancers. They begin in the flat cells that cover the surfaces of your mouth, tongue, and lips. The cancer cells may spread into deeper tissue as the cancer grows.

Most oral cancers are related to tobacco use, heavy alcohol use, or an HPV infection.

Who is more likely to develop oral cancer?

From MedlinePlus: Oral Cancer (US National Library of Medicine) ↗

🧬 Cancer: Cancer is a group of diseases in which some of the body's cells grow and divide without control, and can spread to other parts of the body.

❓ Why it happens

  • Changes (mutations) build up in the genes that tell a cell when to grow, divide and die.
  • Most of these changes happen during life: tobacco, too much sun, alcohol, some infections (such as HPV and hepatitis B and C), radiation, obesity and ageing all raise the risk.
  • Some people inherit a faulty gene that raises their risk, such as BRCA1 or BRCA2.

🫀 What it does to the body

  • Cancer cells form a lump (tumour) that can press on or invade nearby organs.
  • They can travel through the blood or lymph to start new tumours elsewhere (metastasis).
  • Blood cancers crowd out healthy blood cells in the bone marrow.

🧱 Why it is hard to cure

  • Every cancer is different, even between two people with the same type - and inside one tumour.
  • Cancer cells keep changing, so they can learn to resist a medicine that worked at first.
  • Cancer cells are the body's own cells, so killing them without harming healthy cells is hard.
  • Many cancers cause no symptoms until they have spread, and a new medicine often takes more than ten years to go from the lab to patients.

🚀 What research is trying now

  • Targeted medicines against the exact gene change in a tumour (for example EGFR, ALK or KRAS).
  • Immunotherapy that helps the immune system recognise cancer, including CAR-T cell therapy.
  • Personalised cancer vaccines built from each tumour's mutations, now in late trials.
  • Blood tests that look for tumour DNA to find cancer earlier, and AI to read scans and slides.

General information about cancer, reviewed by people; it does not describe any one person. Below: the evidence for oral cavity cancer itself.

🤖

AI briefing

Where the science on oral cavity cancer stands, from the evidence on this page

AI reads the targets, drugs, trials and papers below and writes where the science stands — every claim cited. It is shared with everyone who opens oral cavity cancer.

🎯

Top targets

Genes and proteins ranked by Open Targets evidence (0-1)
TP53 tumor protein p53PROTACothersmall molecule🧊 AlphaFold structure ↗ 0.65
NOTCH1 notch receptor 1PROTACantibodysmall molecule🧊 AlphaFold structure ↗ 0.63
CDKN2A cyclin dependent kinase inhibitor 2A🧊 AlphaFold structure ↗ 0.63
HRAS HRas proto-oncogene, GTPasePROTACantibodysmall molecule🧊 AlphaFold structure ↗ 0.61
PIK3CA phosphatidylinositol-4,5-bisphosphate 3-kinase catalytic subunit alphaPROTACantibodysmall molecule🧊 AlphaFold structure ↗ 0.61
FAT1 FAT atypical cadherin 1PROTACantibody🧊 AlphaFold structure ↗ 0.57
MAML2 mastermind like transcriptional coactivator 2🧊 AlphaFold structure ↗ 0.56
CRTC1 CREB regulated transcription coactivator 1PROTACantibody🧊 AlphaFold structure ↗ 0.56
NFIB nuclear factor I BPROTAC🧊 AlphaFold structure ↗ 0.55
MYB MYB proto-oncogene, transcription factorPROTACsmall molecule🧊 AlphaFold structure ↗ 0.54
KMT2C lysine methyltransferase 2CPROTACsmall molecule🧊 AlphaFold structure ↗ 0.54
FBXW7 F-box and WD repeat domain containing 7PROTACsmall molecule🧊 AlphaFold structure ↗ 0.54
CRTC3 CREB regulated transcription coactivator 3PROTAC🧊 AlphaFold structure ↗ 0.53
CASP8 caspase 8PROTACantibodysmall molecule🧊 AlphaFold structure ↗ 0.53
HMGA2 high mobility group AT-hook 2PROTAC🧊 AlphaFold structure ↗ 0.53

Green labels: what the target is known to be druggable by. The score combines genetics, somatic mutations, drugs, expression and literature.

💊

Drugs and candidates

Every medicine linked to oral cavity cancer, by how far it has got
In phase 2 / 3 · 16
CelecoxibCyclooxygenase-2 inhibitorPhase 2/3
CisplatinPhase 2/3
CyclophosphamidePhase 2/3
DexamethasoneGlucocorticoid receptor agonistPhase 2/3
ThalidomideCRL4(CRBN) E3 ubiquitin ligase inhibitorPhase 2/3
AvelumabProgrammed cell death 1 ligand 1 otherPhase 2
Show all 16
BevacizumabVascular endothelial growth factor A inhibitorPhase 2
CarboplatinPhase 2
DocetaxelTubulin inhibitorPhase 2
FluorouracilThymidylate synthase inhibitorPhase 2
HydroxyureaRibonucleoside-diphosphate reductase RR1 inhibitorPhase 2
Metformin HydrochlorideMitochondrial complex I (NADH dehydrogenase) inhibitor; Mitochondrial glycerol-3-phosphat…Phase 2
NivolumabProgrammed cell death protein 1 inhibitorPhase 2
Pioglitazone HydrochloridePeroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma agonistPhase 2
SintilimabProgrammed cell death protein 1 antagonistPhase 2
Valproic AcidSuccinate semialdehyde dehydrogenase inhibitorPhase 2
Early trials · 4
CetuximabEpidermal growth factor receptor erbB1 inhibitorPhase 1/2
Dacomitinib AnhydrousEpidermal growth factor receptor erbB1 inhibitor; Receptor protein-tyrosine kinase erbB-2…Phase 1/2
AdavosertibSerine/threonine-protein kinase WEE1 inhibitorPhase 1
DurvalumabProgrammed cell death 1 ligand 1 inhibitorEarly phase 1
🧪

Recruiting trials

Worldwide, open to new patients now
Tirelizumab in Combination With Carboplatin and Albumin-binding Paclitaxel for Neoadjuvant Therapy in HNSCCNCT05941338 · Phase 2 · 📍 GuangzhouVMD-928 Monotherapy and in Combination With Pembrolizumab to Treat TrkA Overexpression Driven Solid Tumors or…NCT03556228 · Phase 1, Phase 2 · 📍 Santa RosaPhase II Study of Oral Metformin for Intravesical Treatment of Non-muscle-invasive Bladder CancerNCT03379909 · Phase 2 · 📍 NijmegenA Study of MT-4561 in Patients With Various Advanced Solid TumorsNCT06943521 · Phase 1, Phase 2 · 📍 Los AngelesPrevalence and Clinical Implications of HPV Infection in Male IBD PatientsNCT05911750 · n/a · 📍 BarcelonaDrug Screening Using Novel IMD in Salivary and Head and Neck CancersNCT05553782 · EARLY Phase 1 · 📍 BostonFIH Study of RGT-419B Alone and With Endocrine Therapy in HR-Positive, HER2-Negative Advanced/Metastatic Brea…NCT05304962 · Phase 1 · 📍 La JollaWindow Trial of Fluorescently Labeled Panitumumab (Panitumumab-IRDye800) in Head and Neck CancerNCT06819228 · Phase 1 · 📍 NashvilleDocetaxel and SX-682 in Recurrent/Metastatic Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma, Salivary Gland Carcinoma,…NCT07667400 · Phase 1, Phase 2 · 📍 BethesdaDOVIPA, a Study Evaluating Efficacy and Safety of DOstarlimab and VItamin D3 With mFOLFIRINOX in PAncreatic C…NCT06757244 · Phase 2 · 📍 MarseillePrediction of Malignant Transformation of Oral Leukoplakia Using a MAGE-A-based ImmunoscoreNCT03975322 · n/a · 📍 ErlangenProsthesis Guided Speech Rehabilitation of T1/T2 Cancers of the TongueNCT02584270 · NA · 📍 Ann Arbor Search more trials →
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AI Cure shows public evidence (Open Targets, ClinicalTrials.gov, PubMed, openFDA, DepMap, AlphaFold) with its source, and AI summaries that cite it — not medical advice and not a cure. Treatment decisions belong with your doctor. Research ideas are shared only with approved researchers and labs, who can test them. In an emergency call your local emergency number (112 in India and Europe, 911 in the US). AI Cure Terms of Use · Privacy