Oral cavity squamous cell carcinoma (OCSCC) causes significant morbidity and mortality worldwide, with over 250,000 diagnoses and 125,000 deaths annually. Mutation in TP53 is present in 40-60% of cases of OCSCC, and has been associated with decreased survival. Currently, TP53 mutation is not used as a biomarker in the clinical management of HNSCC for a variety of reasons, including difficulty in obtaining sequence from paraffin-embedded tissue (the most readily available source) with traditional sequencing methods. Technologies for detecting TP53 mutation have improved significantly in recent years, making rapid, high-fidelity sequencing from minimal amounts of formalin-fixed tissue a feasible approach. Although an association between TP53 mutation and alcohol and tobacco use has been well-established in patients studied in the United States, it is not known if there are patterns of mutation unique to specific risk factors in different cultural settings, potentially altering TP53’s prognostic significance for OCSCC patients in other regions of the world.