Mechanism of alternative splicing in gene transcription and research progress in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma

Misregulation of alternative splicing may result in splicing defects in different types of cancers under multiple pathological conditions. Alternative splicing events may serve as potential molecular markers during the diagnosis and treatment for cancer. Alternative splicing is not only a key mechanism for increasing the complexity of proteins in human， but also causes a diversity of expression of transcriptomes and proteomes in a tissue-specific manner. Different coding regions of a certain gene can be spliced in different patterns， resulting in multiple transcription states of this gene， and the final protein product may have different or mutually-antagonistic functional and structural characteristics. It affects the occurrence and development of tumors. Alternative splicing events also occur in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma （HNSCC）. In this article， alternative splicing events in HNSCC and the underlying mechanism were reviewed.