Due to the high frequency of loco-regional recurrences, which could be explained by changes in the field surrounding the tumor, patients with squamous cell carcinoma of head and neck show poor survival. Here we identified a total of 554 genes as dysregulated in clinically tumor free tongue tissue in patients with tongue tumors when compared to healthy control tongue tissue. Among the top dysregulated genes when comparing control and tumor free tissue were those involved in apoptosis (CIDEC, MUC1, ZBTB16, PRNP, ECT2), immune response (IFI27) and differentiation (KRT36). Data suggest that these are important findings which can aid in earlier diagnosis of tumor development, a relapse or a novel squamous cell carcinoma of the tongue, in the absence of histological signs of a tumor.

Department of Clinical Sciences ENT Umeå University SE 901 85 Umeå Sweden

Department of Medical Biosciences Pathology Umeå University SE 901 85 Umeå Sweden

Department of Surgical Sciences ENT Uppsala University 752 36 Uppsala Sweden

Institut de Génétique Moléculaire Université Paris 7 Hôpital St Louis 75010 Paris France

RECAMO Masaryk Memorial Cancer Institute 656 53 Brno Czech Republic

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