Impact of genomic instability in risk assessment and chemoprevention of oral premalignancies.

Head-and-neck cancer is a disfiguring disease with increasing incidence rates even in young people, whose exposure to known risk factors is limited. This emphasizes the importance of early identification, on an individual basis, of precursor lesions that will develop into carcinomas. The clinical value of identifying individuals at high risk of oral cancer is emphasized by the fact that these patients are likely to benefit from available chemopreventive measures, largely without adverse effects.