​Immunological Dynamics of Oral Cancers and Systemic Diseases in Aging Populations

Global ageing trends coincide with a rising burden of chronic cardiovascular, metabolic, neurodegenerative, autoimmune, and malignant diseases. Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) remains a major clinical challenge, and many patients present with at least one comorbid systemic condition. Growing evidence indicates that systemic diseases and their therapies can shape OSCC biology and clinical trajectories by altering immune competence, inflammatory tone, metabolism, and microbial ecosystems. Age-associated immunosenescence, chronic low-grade inflammation, and dysbiosis across the oral and gastrointestinal microbiomes may create permissive conditions for carcinogenesis and tumour progression. Despite these links, causal pathways connecting oral cancer with systemic disease in older adults remain incompletely defined, limiting progress in risk stratification, early detection, and personalised management.This Research Topic aims to clarify how systemic diseases and their treatments influence OSCC initiation, progression, diagnosis, and outcomes in ageing populations, with a primary focus on immune and inflammatory mechanisms. Key gaps include defining whether chronic inflammation promotes carcinogenesis through direct tissue effects or through immune reprogramming, and determining how drug-induced immunomodulation and biologic therapies alter tumour surveillance and the tumour microenvironment. Recent advances in multi-omics, longitudinal microbiome profiling, immune phenotyping (including single-cell and spatial approaches), and systems immunology now enable mechanistic mapping of host–microbe–immune interactions across oral and systemic compartments. The Topic also seeks to accelerate translation into clinically useful biomarkers with predictive, diagnostic, and prognostic value, including in patients with multimorbidity. By integrating mechanistic studies with clinically anchored cohorts, contributors can help establish causal models and identify actionable pathways for prevention, early detection, and more precise therapy selection.This Research Topic welcomes mechanistic and causality-oriented submissions aligned with the Oral Systemic Immunology section scope, addressing immune-mediated oral–systemic crosstalk in OSCC and age-related comorbidities.Themes of interest include:• oral and gut dysbiosis as drivers of carcinogenesis and progression;• shared genet​ic and epigenetic susceptibility to OSCC and systemic disease;• inflammatory mediators and immune cell trafficking between oral tissues and systemic sites;• immunosenescence, trained immunity, and immune priming in older adults;• effects of chronic viral infections and systemic therapies (including immunomodulators and biologics) on tumour immunity;• integrated biomarker development across oral and systemic compartments.Submissions should emphasise mechanisms over correlative associations and ideally include rigorous phenotyping and/or causal inference frameworks. Topic editors: Nidia C Castro Dos Santos, Ildiko Tar Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/80104/immunological-dynamics-of-oral-cancers-and-systemic-diseases-in-aging-populations