Verrucous Carcinoma of the Oral Cavity: Current Concepts

Oral verrucous carcinoma (VC) is a rare locally invasive tumor. The histopathological diagnosis of verrucous carcinoma should be accompanied with careful identification of tumors with a greater chance to become frank cancers. A comprehensive Google and PubMed search was carried out using “oral, verrucous carcinoma and immunohistochemistry” as the key searching terms. All the articles till date were precisely reviewed and the article was judiciously compiled. It was observed that numerous histopathological, immunohistochemical and genetic studies have been carried on VCs to identify the basis for their noncarcinomatous nature and difference from oral squamous cell carcinomas. The present review elaborates the current concepts of oral VCs regarding the etiology, clinical and histopathological, immunohistochemical and genetic characteristics.