Oral Cancer and HPV Connection: A Review

HPV is the leading cause of oropharyngeal cancers and a few oral cavity cancers with increasing mortality across the globe. The risk factors for oral cancer are well known. Factors like tobacco chewing, smoking, alcohol consumption and actinic radiation have been extensively studied and clinically validated. However , Recently HPV has been shown to be a significant risk factor for oral and oropharyngeal cancers. The HPV family contains around 200 strains but it is important to note that only nine out of them are high risk and associated with cancers. Amongst them HPV16 is most strongly related with oral cancer. HPV associated cancers are different from cancers originating from other etiologies and thus , require a novel multidisciplinary treatment approach. The article is a review of Molecular Biology , Risk Factors ,Clinical aspects ,Diagnosis ,and Treatment of HPV associated Oral cancer .