Head and neck cancer refers to a group of malignancies of various sites and subsites of the upper aerodigestive tract. Patients present with a wide spectrum of complications ranging from disfigurement, respiratory obstruction, dysphagia and lastly death. Head and neck cancer (HNCA) is the sixth commonest cancer in the world (Macha et al., 2014) with an annual mortality of 350,000 cases (Boyle et al., 2004; Parkin et al., 2005). In India, HNCA accounts for 30-40% cancers at all sites, the highest incidence of 54.48% (Bhattacharjee et al., 2006) reported from the North-east region of the country which comprises of the states of Manipur, Assam, Nagaland, Tripura, Meghalaya and Mizoram. Among various factors known to contribute to HNCA, smoking and alcohol consumption in Western countries and habit of smokeless tobacco, areca nut and/or betel quid in Southeast Asia are the commonest causes. Evidences have shown that the cascade of premalignancy is initiated by tobacco product in the form of smoking, inhaled or oral use like pan masala or betel nut quid. It is considered as one of the strongest risk factor for various oral lesions. Moreover, poor socio-economic condition and the lack of cancer awareness among general public causes delay in diagnosis and treatment thereby greatly reducing the chances of cure from cancer even with the best of the treatments available. In this scenario, early HNCA detection and assessment with the help of biomarkers assumes great importance. According to Casiato et al., (1983) ����tumor markers are cellular products that are abnormally elaborated by malignancies that can be detected in various body fluids and on the surface of cancer cells����.
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