Despite the introduction of novel new therapeutic modalities into the treatment of human cancer, improvements in long term survival rates have only been modest. Accordingly, there has been increasing interest in the development of cancer preventive strategies to slow or stop the onset of invasive disease. In that oral squamous cell carcinomas develop as a multistep process by the accumulation of genetic and epigenetic changes in the carcinogen-exposed fields, oral premalignant lesions(OPL) have been considered as a target tissue for cancer prevention study.

Oral Cancer Research Institute was established in 1997 to prevent human cancer by studying carcinogenesis of early lesions of human cancer, by investigating biomarkers in assessing the high risk factors of malignant transformation, and by carrying out clinical trials for chemoprevention. Oral Cancer Research Institute has been supported by the Korea Research Foundation Grant funded by the Korean Government(MOEHRD) from 2005 December for 9 years.

Faculty