Oral cancer has a high degree of malignancy, easily recurs, readily metastasizes and poor progonsis. Autophagy is a catabolic process induced in cells under stressful conditions. In recent years, studies have found that the activation of autophagy in epithelial cells can inhibit carcinogenesis and activate pathways such as mTOR and MAPK to activate autophagy in oral cancer cells and inhibit their survival. Inducing autophagy can degrade eukaryotic initiation factor 4E protein and inhibit oral cancer metastasis. Inducing autophagy in oral cancer cells can inhibit their proliferation and promote their apoptosis. Adding autophagy inducers to the treatment can help improve its efficacy and patient survival compared with chemoradiotherapy alone. In addition, the induction of autophagy in oral cancer cells can improve the body's immune function and enhance the efficacy of oral cancer immunotherapy. This article summarizes the relationship between autophagy and oral cancer and the role of induced autophagy in the treatment of oral cancer with the combined application of chemoradiotherapy and immunotherapy. The goal is to provide new ideas for inducing autophagy during the treatment of oral cancer, improving the therapeutic effect of oral cancer and the survival rate of patients. At present, the mechanism of action of induced autophagy in the treatment of oral cancer is not clear. Future research should study its mechanism of action, improve its therapeutic effect on oral cancer and develop autophagy inducers to accurately regulate and induce autophagy during the treatment of oral cancer.

Oral submucous fibrosis (OSF) is an oral potentially malignant disorader that may be closely related to betel chewing and other factors. The pathogenic mechanism of OSF is still unclear, and there is no cure for OSF. Currently, there are many clinical treatments for OSF, such as medications, including steroids, pentoxifylline, lycopene, turmeric, salvia miltiorrhiza, and aloe vera, lasers, and surgery. In order to evaluate the safety and efficacy of these methods to improve the maximum mouth opening, alleviate the burning sensation, increase tongue flexibility, and other symptoms that accompany OSF, researchers have completed some evidence-based studies in recent years. We searched PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, The Cochrane Library, CNKI, Wanfang, and VIP databases for systematic reviews or metaanalyses of OSF research and treatment published over the last 10 years (July 2014–July 2024). Current evidencebased studies have shown that pentoxifylline, hyaluronidase combined with steroids, lycopene, curcumin, salvia miltiorrhiza combined with steroids, and aloe vera are effective in improving maximum mouth opening and alleviating the burning sensation in patients with OSF. The evidence levels of hyaluronidase combined with steroids, lycopene, curcumin, salvia miltiorrhiza combined with steroids, and aloe vera were all A, and pentoxifylline was B. Lycopene was more effective than other positive drugs in improving maximum mouth opening in patients, and aloe vera was more effective than positive drugs in improving the burning sensation in the early stage of treatment. In addition, antioxidants are good for improving OSF symptoms and have promising application. Lasers can improve maximum mouth opening and alleviate pain and other OSF symptoms, but laser treatment is costly and the level of evidence is C. Surgery is effective in improving maximum mouth opening, but it is traumatic and the level of evidence is C. However, the current evidence-based data are not of high quality, and additional well-designed multi-center, large-sample, randomized controlled clinical trials with long follow-up periods and standardized outcome indicators are needed in the future.