Salivary analysis of oral cancer biomarkers.
BACKGROUND
Oral cancer is a common and lethal malignancy. Direct contact between saliva and the oral cancer lesion makes measurement of tumour markers in saliva an attractive alternative to serum testing.


METHODS
We tested 19 tongue cancer patients, measuring the levels of 8 salivary markers related to oxidative stress, DNA repair, carcinogenesis, metastasis and cellular proliferation and death.


RESULTS
Five markers increased in cancer patients by 39-246%: carbonyls, lactate dehydrogenase, metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9), Ki67 and Cyclin D1 (CycD1) (P< or =0.01). Three markers decreased by 16-29%: 8-oxoguanine DNA glycosylase, phosphorylated-Src and mammary serine protease inhibitor (Maspin) (P< or =0.01). Increase in salivary carbonyls was profound (by 246%, P=0.012); alterations in CycD1 (87% increase, P=0.000006) and Maspin (29% decrease, P=0.007) were especially significant. Sensitivity values of these eight analysed markers ranged from 58% to 100%; specificity values ranged from 42% to 100%. Both values were especially high for the CycD1 and Maspin markers, 100% for each value of each marker. These were also high for carbonyls, 90% and 80%, respectively, and for MMP-9, 100% and 79%, respectively.


CONCLUSIONS
The significance of each salivary alteration is discussed. As all alterations correlated with each other, they may belong to a single carcinogenetic network. Cancer-related changes in salivary tumour markers may be used as a diagnostic tool for diagnosis, prognosis and post-operative monitoring.
Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Rabin Medical Center, Petah Tiqva and Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel.
T
T
Shpitzer
Y
Y
Hamzany
G
G
Bahar
R
R
Feinmesser
D
D
Savulescu
I
I
Borovoi
M
M
Gavish
R M
RM
Nagler
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000032:analysis*; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000175:diagnosis; D019938:Cyclin D1 / Q000032:analysis; D045647:DNA Glycosylases / Q000032:analysis; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D019394:Ki-67 Antigen / Q000032:analysis; D008297:Male; D020780:Matrix Metalloproteinase 9 / Q000032:analysis; D008875:Middle Aged; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D012463:Saliva / Q000737:chemistry*; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D014062:Tongue Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000473:pathology
D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; C530104:CCND1 protein, human; D019394:Ki-67 Antigen; D019938:Cyclin D1; D045647:DNA Glycosylases; C479058:oxoguanine glycosylase 1, human; D020780:Matrix Metalloproteinase 9