Choudhary, S.; Guleria, V.

Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) remains a major global health burden with persistently poor survival outcomes, largely due to delayed diagnosis and insufficient molecular stratification. This study aimed to identify critical hub genes and prognostic biomarkers in OSCC through an integrated bioinformatics framework leveraging The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA-HNSC) transcriptomic dataset. Differential expression analysis identified significantly dysregulated genes between tumor and normal tissues under stringent statistical thresholds. Functional enrichment revealed predominant involvement in cell cycle regulation, mitotic spindle organization, extracellular matrix remodeling, and oncogenic signaling pathways. A protein-protein interaction (PPI) network was constructed using STRING and analyzed in Cytoscape to identify topologically significant hub genes. Network centrality analysis highlighted CDK1, CCNB1, TOP2A, BUB1, and MMP9 as key regulatory nodes within the OSCC interactome. Survival analysis demonstrated that elevated expression of these hub genes was significantly associated with reduced overall survival, underscoring their potential prognostic relevance. Collectively, these findings provide mechanistic insights into OSCC progression and propose candidate molecular targets for risk stratification and therapeutic intervention.