Precision Medicine in Oral Cancer: Integrating Preoperative Diagnostics, Biomarkers and Advanced Technologies for Personalized Patient Care

Dear Colleagues,

Precision medicine is reshaping modern oncology by enabling increasingly individualized approaches to the diagnosis, characterization, and treatment of malignancies. This paradigm is particularly relevant to oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC), the most common malignant epithelial neoplasm of the oral cavity, whose biological behavior, invasive potential, metastatic risk, molecular profile, and therapeutic response may vary substantially among patients.

Although histopathological examination of an appropriately obtained biopsy remains the diagnostic gold standard, contemporary oral and head and neck oncology increasingly relies on a multimodal diagnostic framework. Clinical examination may be complemented by cytology, fine-needle aspiration, ultrasonography, Doppler imaging, elastography, CT, CBCT, MRI, diffusion-weighted imaging, and dynamic contrast-enhanced techniques. Emerging optical technologies, including autofluorescence, narrow-band imaging, optical coherence tomography, confocal microscopy, and Raman spectroscopy, may further enhance early detection, lesion characterization, and identification of representative biopsy sites.

The integration of advanced imaging with radiomics, artificial intelligence, and molecular profiling may facilitate non-invasive tumor characterization, staging, prognostic stratification, and individualized treatment planning. Similarly, digital pathology, genomics, epigenomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics, microRNAs, and liquid-biopsy approaches may provide complementary information regarding tumor aggressiveness, metastatic potential, treatment response, recurrence, and minimal residual disease.

Artificial intelligence may ultimately enable the integration of clinical, imaging, histopathological, and molecular datasets to support lesion detection, tumor segmentation, risk stratification, and clinical decision-making. Overall, the integration of these complementary modalities aims to establish evidence-based, personalized diagnostic pathways capable of improving early detection, staging accuracy, prognostic assessment, therapeutic selection, and longitudinal monitoring in patients with oral malignancies.

This Special Issue aims to explore the role of precision medicine in the diagnosis, characterization, staging, prognostic stratification, and personalized management of malignant pathologies of the oral cavity, with particular emphasis on oral squamous cell carcinoma and other malignant neoplasms. We particularly welcome studies investigating the integration of preoperative diagnostic technologies with conventional histopathology, digital pathology, and molecular oncology.

In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:

• Precision medicine and oncology in malignant oral cavity pathologies;
• Preoperative diagnostic pathways for oral malignancies;
• Fine-needle aspiration and ultrasound-guided FNA;
• Radiographic evaluation (CT, CBCT, Ultrasound and MRI) in oral cancer;
• Diffusion-weighted and functional MRI;
• Three-dimensional imaging and virtual surgical planning;
• Radiomics and quantitative imaging biomarkers;
• Artificial intelligence in oral cancer imaging;
• Tissue autofluorescence and fluorescence-based diagnostic systems;
• Vital staining and tissue dyes;
• In vivo confocal microscopy;
• Cytology, liquid-based cytology and brush biopsy;
• Digital pathology and computational pathology;
• Artificial intelligence-assisted histopathological diagnosis;
• Molecular biomarkers of oral squamous cell carcinoma;
• Proteomic and metabolomic biomarkers;
• Salivary biomarkers and liquid biopsy;
• Oral microbiome and oral cancer;
• Biomarkers predicting recurrence and treatment response;
• Precision diagnosis of oral potentially malignant disorders and early oral cancer;
• Personalized biopsy and biopsy-site selection;
• Clinical implementation of advanced diagnostic technologies;
• Multidisciplinary models for personalized oral cancer care.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Saverio Capodiferro
Dr. Alfonso Manfuso
Dr. Marta Forte
Guest Editors

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• diagnosis
• oral surgery
• oral cancer
• precision medicine
• oral pathology