10.26180/5bf208045df27 ELIZABETH ANNE SIGSTON ELIZABETH ANNE SIGSTON Emergence and Margins in Head and Neck Cancer: A new understanding Monash University 2019 carcinogenesis emergence systems biology oral cancer complexity cancer biology head and neck cancer squamous cell carcinoma epithelial mesenchymal transition p63 vimentin laminin gamma2 dual immunohistochemistry Cancer Surgery Oncology and Carcinogenesis not elsewhere classified Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Oral Medicine and Pathology Systems Biology 2019-03-13 22:18:13 Thesis https://bridges.monash.edu/articles/thesis/Emergence_and_Margins_in_Head_and_Neck_Cancer_A_new_understanding/7357226 Cancer has been widely accepted as a genetic disease. This thesis challenges this assumption and proposes that cancer be considered as an emergent complex system. A new framework for carcinogenesis and cancer progression is presented. This framework is applied to identify biological markers with the potential to predict recurrence in oral cancer. A simple dual staining technique is developed to test the identified biomarkers. The results support the use of these biomarkers as a predictor of recurrence over and above traditionally measured cancer clearance.