Head and neck cancer: searching for genomic and epigenetic biomarkers in body fluids – the state of art

Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) affects multiple sites of the upper aerodigestive tract and exhibited high incidence and mortality worldwide, being frequently diagnosed at advanced stage. Early detection of HNSCC plays a crucial role in a successful therapy. In the last years, the survival rates of these tumors have not improved significantly due to the late diagnosis and the lack of precise disease biomarkers and targeted therapies. The introduction in the clinical practice of body fluids to detect and analyze circulating tumor cells (CTCs), circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) and exosomes provides a minimally or non-invasive method also called as liquid biopsy for diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers detection, representing a shift of paradigm in precision medicine through the revolution in the way to perform HNSCC diagnosis and to screen high risk population. Despite the use of body fluids being an emergent and up-to date issue to early diagnosis HNSCC and their recurrences, no strategy has yet proven to be consistently effective and able to be translated to clinical application in the routine clinical management of these patients. In this review we will discuss the recent discoveries using blood and saliva to identify biomarkers for the early detection and prognosis of HNSCC.