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ORPHA:502363

Squamous cell carcinoma of the oral cavity

high confidenceDisorder

Publications

46,883

99.2th percentile

Trials

139

Interventional, condition-specific

Researchers

1,378

Distinct authors in sample

Gene link

—

Readiness

3/6

Stages with a signal

Clinical definition (Orphanet)

A rare head and neck tumor characterized by a firm infiltrative neoplasm with squamous differentiation, arising from the mucosal epithelium, and most commonly located in the tongue, floor of the mouth, or gingiva, but also the buccal mucosa or any other area of the oral cavity, depending on prevailing risk factors (such as smoking, alcohol consumption, and tobacco chewing). Patients present with a variably white, erythematous, mixed, nodular, or ulcerated lesion, which may cause discomfort, pain, or reduced mobility of the tongue. The tumor is aggressive with a propensity for local invasion and early lymph node metastasis.

How rare: 1-9 / 100 000 — about one to nine people per hundred thousand.

Orphanet entry

Cross-references

Joined from Mondo / Orphanet. MeSH labels may enter searches; UMLS / OMIM / NCIT are stored for reference.

Additional Mondo synonyms (13)

mouth scc · mouth squamous cell carcinoma · oral cavity scc · oral cavity squamous cell cancer · oral cavity squamous cell carcinoma · scc of mouth · scc of oral cavity · scc of the mouth · scc of the oral cavity · squamous cell carcinoma of mouth · squamous cell carcinoma of oral cavity · squamous cell carcinoma of the mouth · squamous cell carcinoma of the oral cavity

Research stages

Trial readiness signals

Where this condition sits on an open-data research pipeline — not how close a treatment is, and not medical advice. Empty stages often mean “not in these databases under this Mondo ID,” not “impossible.”

3/6 stages with a signal

An interventional trial matched this condition name on ClinicalTrials.gov — see trials below.

  1. Gene identifiedNot found

    No GenCC disease–gene assertion in this build

  2. LiteraturePresent

    46,883 matched papers (33,004 in last 10 years) Source

  3. Phenotype characterisedNot found

    No HPO disease–phenotype associations via Monarch for these Mondo IDs

  4. Animal modelPresent

    1 genotype model (Rattus norvegicus) Source

  5. Orphan designationNot found

    No FDA or EMA orphan-drug designation matched this disease via UMLS or preferred name Source

  6. Interventional trialPresent

    139 matched on ClinicalTrials.gov (32 recruiting in sample)

Biology

Genes and phenotypes

Gene–disease validity from GenCC, plus phenotypes and animal models joined from Monarch Initiative via Mondo ID — not a clinical diagnosis aid.

Do we know what causes it?

Not yet — the cause hasn't been pinned down in GenCC.

No strong gene–disease assertion joined for this Orphanet entity.

Phenotypes (Monarch / HPO)

None returned for this Mondo ID. That often means “not linked under this ID,” not “no clinical features.”

Animal models (Monarch / Alliance)

1

Model associations linked to this Mondo ID

  • HMT·RGD:68047·Rattus norvegicus

Monarch fetch 2026-07-29

Therapies

Designations, candidates, and chemicals

FDA OOPD and EMA orphan designations, Open Targets clinical candidates, and CTD chemical associations via MyDisease.info. These never change the interventional-trial headline.

Orphan designation (FDA · EMA)

No designation matched this disease via UMLS or preferred name on the FDA OOPD mirror or EMA orphan register. Absence here is not proof that none exists under another wording.

Open Targets candidates

69

Drugs / clinical candidates · MONDO_0004958

CTD chemicals (MyDisease.info)

No CTD chemical associations returned for this Mondo ID.

Literature

Is anyone studying this?

46,883

46,883 papers — among the better-studied rare conditions, though still a fraction of common-disease literature (breast cancer: over 700,000). Median papers in the last 10 years for a rare disease in this dataset (publications denominator n=3967) is 59.

46,883 papers since the earliest indexed year in this search — median last-10-year count for a rare disease in this dataset is 59 (publications denominator n=3967).

33,004 in the last 10 years · high confidence · 99.2th percentile (publications denominator)

Phrase hits: 46,883 · MeSH hits: 0

Open Europe PMC search

Who's working on it?

1,378

Distinct author names in 200 sampled papers — named people below.

Who's working on it?

People publishing on this condition (sampled Europe PMC records). Affiliation is the most recent found in that sample.

  1. 01
    Singh A8 papers · 2026

    Department of Surgical Oncology, Mahavir Cancer Sansthan, Patna, Bihar, India.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  2. 02
    Gupta A5 papers · 2026

    Department of Clinical Oncology, Mount Vernon Cancer Centre, Greater London, United Kingdom.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  3. 03
    Huang SF5 papers · 2026

    Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital and Chang Gung University, Taoyuan, Taiwan, ROC.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  4. 04
    Liao CT5 papers · 2026

    Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital and Chang Gung University, Taoyuan, Taiwan, ROC. Electronic address: liaoct@cgmh.org.tw.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  5. 05
    Lin CY5 papers · 2026

    Department of Radiation Oncology, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital and Chang Gung University, Taoyuan, Taiwan, ROC.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  6. 06
    Cheng NM4 papers · 2026

    Department of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging Center, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital and Chang Gung University, Taoyuan, Taiwan, ROC.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  7. 07
    Hsieh CH4 papers · 2026

    Department of Medical Oncology, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital and Chang Gung University, Taoyuan, Taiwan, ROC.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  8. 08
    Kang CJ4 papers · 2026

    Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital and Chang Gung University, Taoyuan, Taiwan, ROC.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  9. 09
    Kumar A4 papers · 2026

    Department of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, New York, USA.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  10. 10
    Lee LY4 papers · 2026

    Department of Pathology, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital and Chang Gung University, Taoyuan, Taiwan, ROC.

    Papers in Europe PMC

Clinical research

Is a treatment being tested?

139

interventional trials for this specific condition

139 interventional trials matched this specific condition name; 32 currently recruiting in our sample.

Data as of 11 September 2026

139 interventional trials — more than 77.2% of diseases in the trials denominator have none at all (5501 of 7126; this disease is at the 98.9th percentile).

high confidence · 98.9th percentile (trials denominator)

Recruiting interventional trials

From the matched ClinicalTrials.gov set

139 interventional trials matched after quoted-phrase search and title/condition post-filter.

Observational and natural-history studies

15 observational studies match this condition. These do not test a treatment and are not counted in the interventional-trial headline, but they are genuine research: natural-history work often defines the endpoints needed for a future rare-disease trial, and families may be able to enroll.

Recruiting or not-yet-recruiting

Open the complete matched search on ClinicalTrials.gov

Other registries (secondary)

Broader net from EU CTIS, ISRCTN, and ICTRP when available — deduped against ClinicalTrials.gov IDs already counted above. Dual-model LLM relevance gates what we keep. These rows are not added to the interventional headline.

raw 49 · after dedupe 49 · already on CT.gov 0 · kept 0 · parent 0 · uncertain 49 · dropped 0 · fetched 2026-07-30

Source notes: ictrp: Error: ICTRP public search unavailable (WHO portal is SPA-only; SOAP needs partnership). Tried: https://apps.who.int/tri

No secondary-registry studies passed dual-model relevance for this condition name (after dedupe).

Uncertain / not reviewed (49)

Where to find support

Condition-specific patient organisations, when Orphanet lists them, are on the disease’s Orphanet page. We also link umbrella groups that support undiagnosed and ultra-rare families.

Orphanet entry for Squamous cell carcinoma of the oral cavity — check Associations / patient organisations on that page.

India — NPRD

Last verified 2026-07-26

This ORPHAcode is not on our curated NPRD list (direct or Mondo-parent match). That does not decide clinical eligibility; families in India should ask a notified Centre of Excellence about current coverage.

Hand-curated for this project. ORPHAcode mappings are best-effort and may be incomplete or imprecise for umbrella categories. Parent (Mondo) matches mean the policy lists a broader category — confirm eligibility with a Centre of Excellence. Financial entitlements summarised from public policy statements and may change. This is not official government guidance.

How we counted this

Europe PMC query (preferred label + any corrected label + Orphanet and Mondo exact synonyms, stoplisted; unioned with resolved MeSH labels when available). UMLS / OMIM / NCIT cross-references are stored on the overview but are not added to the query string.

"Squamous cell carcinoma of the oral cavity" OR "Squamous cell carcinoma of oral cavity" OR "mouth scc" OR "mouth squamous cell carcinoma" OR "oral cavity scc" OR "oral cavity squamous cell cancer" OR "oral cavity squamous cell carcinoma" OR "scc of mouth" OR "scc of the mouth" OR "scc of oral cavity" OR "scc of the oral cavity" OR "squamous cell carcinoma of mouth" OR "squamous cell carcinoma of the mouth"

Run this search on Europe PMC

ClinicalTrials.gov query (quoted phrases + MeSH via query.cond, plus recall-expansion terms when used):

"Squamous cell carcinoma of the oral cavity" OR "Squamous cell carcinoma of oral cavity" OR "mouth scc" OR "mouth squamous cell carcinoma" OR "oral cavity scc" OR "oral cavity squamous cell cancer" OR "oral cavity squamous cell carcinoma" OR "scc of mouth" OR "scc of the mouth" OR "scc of oral cavity" OR "scc of the oral cavity" OR "squamous cell carcinoma of mouth" OR "squamous cell carcinoma of the mouth"

Interventional trials matched via: phrase (mesh = registered under a MeSH descriptor no name phrase would catch; recall-expansion = gene / selected parent terms used only for trials).

Study-type breakdown: 139 interventional · 15 observational · 0 expanded access. Only interventional studies enter the trial headline.

Query health: ok — strategies attempted: phrase; with hits: phrase

Run this search on ClinicalTrials.gov

Confidence reasoning

  • Preferred label is multi-word and distinctive
  • No synonyms dropped by stoplist
  • No label/synonym collisions with other diseases in this corpus

Ingested 2026-07-27T17:44:12.999Z