Prevalence of Herpes Simplex Virus (HSV) and Cytomegalovirus (CMV) in Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma patients with a history of Nicotine and Alcohol abuse

Several risk factors cause Oral Squamous cell carcinoma such as alcohol and smoking. In considerable studies, patients without exposure to these habits develop OSCC which emphasizes the role of other factors like oncogenic viruses and genetic susceptibility. Several viruses are frequently associated with OSCC along with co-factors on which the viruses are dependent for their carcinogenic abilities. The accurate role of viruses in cancer development is yet to be studied to improve treatment and prognosis of OSCC. In this study, the prevalence of HSV-1, HSV-2, and CMV in the patients diagnosed with OSCC are reported with help of molecular and quantification techniques such as PCR and ELISA which recognize the DNA of the virus in the host and IgG, IgM antibodies of HSV-1, HSV-2 and CMV in the blood serum. The results are statistically analyzed, determining the significance of the results obtained. OSCC occurrence because of HSV infection with risk factors like smoking, alcohol consumption, tobacco chewing was less as compared to the cancer caused by infection of CMV with combination of risk factors. The genetic material of both the studied virus HSV (1 and 2) and CMV were observed to be in majority biopsy samples of the patients.