Oral field cancerization: An update of evidences

Patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma often develop multiple premalignant lesions; this led to the concept of field-effect in cancer which was originated by Slaughter et al. in the year 1953. Though this was based on histopathological observations, the development of modern molecular technologies has extended the field effect concept by exploring the molecular abnormalities in tissues that appear histologically normal. In this update, we discuss in detail about the origin, principle, various theories used to explain this effect, molecular findings and therapeutic implications related to oral field cancerization