OnCo
termsTerm

Squamous cell carcinoma (SCC)

aka squamous, squamous cell, squamous-cell, squamous histology, squamous cell carcinomas, epidermoid

Cancer arising from the flat, scale-like cells that form the skin and line the mouth, throat, food pipe, airways, cervix and anus. Smoking, alcohol, sun and HPV are its main causes.

Squamous carcinomas of the head and neck, oesophagus (ESCC, most of the world's cases), lung (about a quarter of NSCLC), cervix, anus, penis and skin share a biology dominated by TP53 loss, CDKN2A loss and, in HPV-driven sites, viral E6/E7; they rarely carry the kinase drivers seen in adenocarcinoma, so chemotherapy, radiotherapy and immunotherapy remain their backbone. Skin SCC responds unusually well to PD-1 blockade (cemiplimab) because of its very high UV mutation load. Squamous histology in lung cancer excludes pemetrexed and bevacizumab.

Category
Pathology & biomarkers

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