Objective: To explore the application value of optical coherence elastography ( OCE ) in the early diagnosis of experimental oral cancer in rats.Methods: Twenty-three healthy male Wistar rats were randomly divided into a model group (n=15) and a control group (n=8). At weeks 0, 8, 16, and 24 of the experiment, the Young"s modulus of the palatal mucosa in both groups was measured and calculated in vivo using the OCE system. Using pathological findings as the gold standard, the diagnostic efficacy of OCE was evaluated by comparing differences in Young"s modulus values and constructing receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves.Results: The model group rats successfully reproduced the dynamic progression trajectory of oral mucosal lesions from normal to atypical hyperplasia to invasive squamous cell carcinoma. Quantitative OCE analysis revealed that the Young"s modulus values of the model group mucosa exhibited a stepwise increase with disease progression, progressively rising from baseline to week 24 and remaining significantly higher than the control group during the same period (P<0.001). ROC curve analysis indicated that the area under the ROC curve for diagnosing oral cancer using Young"s modulus reached 0.924 (95% CI: 0.868–0.981), with a diagnostic sensitivity of 0.938 and specificity of 0.775.Conclusions: OCE technology can quantitatively characterize the evolution of tissue biomechanical properties in the process of experimental oral carcinogenesis in a non-invasive, real-time and high-resolution manner, and has a good application prospect in the early non-invasive diagnosis and screening of oral cancer.