Background: Oral cancer is a debilitating disease associated with metastasis and a high mortality rate. It is the sixth most common cancer with increasing prevalence, with the majority being oral squamous cell carcinoma. Nanotechnology gives the possibility of intracellular imaging through attachment of quantum dots or synthetic chromophores to selected molecules like proteins, thereby allowing a close monitoring of intracellular biochemical activities. Nanoparticles usually target cells by receptor-mediated binding or endocytosis, and a nanoparticle surface modified with a ligand can efficiently bind with target cells. Surface functionalisation of gold nanoparticles by conjugation with a specific agent such as a peptide, antibody, and protein has been proposed for diagnosis and thermo-phototherapy of cancer cells.
Objectives: This review aimed to provide insight on the current status and potential clinical applications of nanotechnology in the diagnosis of oral cancer.
Materials and methods: The PubMed/ MEDLINE, EMBASE and CENTRAL databases were searched for works published from January 2005 to June 2020 using keywords "oral cancer diagnosis and nanotechnology". Original prospective and retrospective clinical studies were included. Only articles published in the English language were selected. Bibliographies from previous systematic reviews on the topic were also analysed. Articles for which full text could not be recovered, commentaries, editorials, and debates were excluded. A total of 10 articles were included in this review.
Discussion and Conclusion: The results have been presented in a tabulated format in the poster. Nano-based diagnostic methods using quantum dots, gold nanoparticles, nano biochips, plasmonic nanosensors, and nanorobots seem to be promising tools to provide rapid and real-time diagnosis for oral cancer. However, the methodologies and clinical results vary within and between each of the studies included in this review. Therefore, it is difficult to conclude and support the superiority of one diagnostic method over another. Further well-designed medium to long term studies are required to define the benefit of nanotechnology in the early diagnosis of oral cancer with good clinical results.