Abstract: The present disclosure involves a process to identify a patient likely to have OSCC by taking a sample containing miRNA from epithelial cells from the patient's oral cavity and determining the relative level of expression of miRNA sequences which have different levels of expression in epithelial cell OSCC tissue than in benign tissue. The epithelial cells are those that form the mucosal epithelium that consists mainly of keratinocytes with some immune cells. It involves determining the relative level of expression of at least miRNA sequences hsa-miR-130-3p, hsa-miR-7-5p, hsa-miR-101-3p and hsa-miR-146b-5p. It also involves discriminating between benign oral lesions and OSCC using a sample of epithelial cells of the lesion and determining the relative level of expression of miRNA sequences which have different levels of expression in epithelial cell OSCC tissue than in benign tissue. It uses the relative level of expression of at least miRNA sequences hsa-miR-196a-5p and hsa-miR-873-5p.