title: Investigation and identification of potential biomarkers in human saliva for the early diagnosis of oral squamous cell carcinoma.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Oral cancer is 1 of the 6 most common human cancers, with an annual incidence of >300,000 cases worldwide. This study aimed to investigate potential biomarkers in human saliva to facilitate the early diagnosis of oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC).
  
  
  METHODS
  Unstimulated whole saliva obtained from OSCC patients (n=30) and apparently healthy individuals (n=30) were assayed with ultra-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS) in hydrophilic interaction chromatography mode. The data were analyzed using a nonparametric Mann-Whitney U test, logistic regression, and the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) to evaluate the predictive power of each of 4 biomarkers, or combinations of biomarkers, for OSCC screening.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Four potential salivary biomarkers demonstrated significant differences (P<0.05) in concentrations between patients at stages I-II and the healthy individuals. The area under the curve (AUC) values in control vs OSCC I-II mode based on choline, betaine, pipecolinic acid, and l-carnitine were 0.926, 0.759, 0.994, and 0.708, respectively. Four salivary biomarkers in combination yielded satisfactory accuracy (0.997), sensitivity (100%), and specificity (96.7%) in distinguishing OSCC I-II from control.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Salivary metabolite biomarkers for the early diagnosis of OSCC were verified in this study. The proposed approach is expected to be applied as a potential technique of preclinical screening of OSCC.
authors.affiliation: Research Center of Analytical Instrumentation, Analytical & Testing Centre, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610064, PR China.
authors.forename: Qihui
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Pan
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.forename: Xiaoyi
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Yixiang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Duan
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000032:analysis*; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000175:diagnosis*; D002851:Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid; D055088:Early Detection of Cancer / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D013058:Mass Spectrometry; D008875:Middle Aged; D009062:Mouth Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis*; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D012463:Saliva / Q000737:chemistry*; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor
keywords: Biomarker; Early diagnosis; HILIC–UPLC–MS; Oral cancer; Saliva