title: Biomarkers of head and neck cancer, tools or a gordian knot?
abstract: Head and neck tumors comprise a wide spectrum of heterogeneous neoplasms for which biomarkers are needed to aid in earlier diagnosis, risk assessment and therapy response. Personalized medicine based on predictive markers linked to drug response, it is hoped, will lead to improvements in outcomes and avoidance of unnecessary treatment in carcinoma of the head and neck. Because of the heterogeneity of head and neck tumors, the integration of multiple selected markers in association with the histopathologic features is advocated for risk assessment. Validation of each biomarker in the context of clinical trials will be required before a specific marker can be incorporated into daily practice. Furthermore, we will give evidence that some proteins implicated in cell-cell interaction, such as CD44 may be involved in the multiple mechanism of the development and progression of laryngeal lesions and may help to predict the risk of transformation of the benign or precancerous lesions to cancer.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ioannina Greece.
authors.forename: Evangeli S
authors.initials: ES
authors.lastname: Lampri
authors.affiliation: Department of Anatomy-Histology-Embryology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ioannina Greece.
authors.forename: Georgios
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Chondrogiannis
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, General Hospital "G. Hatzikosta" Ioannina, Greece.
authors.forename: Elli
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Ioachim
authors.affiliation: Ippokratio Hospital Thessaloniki, Greece.
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Varouktsi
authors.affiliation: Department of Forensic Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ioannina Greece.
authors.forename: Antigoni
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mitselou
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental and Natural Resources Management, School of Engineering, University of Patras Agrinio, Greece.
authors.forename: Aggeliki
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Galani
authors.affiliation: Department of Hematology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ioannina Greece.
authors.forename: Evangelos
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Briassoulis
authors.affiliation: Department of Anatomy-Histology-Embryology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ioannina Greece.
authors.forename: Panagiotis
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Kanavaros
authors.affiliation: Department of Anatomy-Histology-Embryology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ioannina Greece.
authors.forename: Vasiliki
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Galani
keywords: HPV; carcinogenesis; genetic; molecular; pharyngeal carcinoma; squamous cell carcinoma