DCC and head and neck squamous cell carcinoma: Rettori et al.20 observed persistent hypermethylation of the DCC gene in the oral rinse collected at two posttreatment sessions and hypothesized that perhaps this hypermethylated state in the follow-up was related to physiological changes, such as chronic inflammation, widely dispersed in the mucosa of the upper aerodigestive tract in the population of patients with a history of HNSCC, in line with the theory of field cancerization25.