Fig. 1

Summary of epigenetic pathways involved in oropharygeal squamous cell carcinoma. Oncogenic human papillomavirus integrated into the human genome, resulting in the expression of HPV-associated proteins E6 and E7. This results in alterations of p53, Rb and Polycomb Repressive Complex (shown here including EZH2, SUZ12, EED and HOXD) related pathways with downstream epigenetic deregulation in OPSCC. Overexpression of P16INK4a occurs as a result of loss of Rb and is used as clinical surrogate marker for HPV-positive OPSCC. *FOXM1 and HOTAIR are presumed to have a role in OPSCC based on studies in OCSCC