title: Assessment of salivary total antioxidant capacity in patients with primary untreated head and neck squamous cell carcinoma with ORAC.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Oxidative DNA damage leads to abnormalities in endogenous cellular processes and constitutes a direct link between free radicals, antioxidants and squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). Oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC) method is used to measure antioxidant capacity versus oxygen free radicals. There is no report on the application of ORAC to evaluate salivary antioxidant capacity in patients with head and neck SCC. This study investigated the relation between total antioxidant capacity of saliva, measured with ORAC method, and the incidence, location, size and histopathological grading of SCC.
  
  
  METHODS
  Salivary antioxidant capacity was assessed in 30 male and female patients with histopathologically confirmed oral and laryngeal SCC. Histopathological grading of SCC was based on WHO classification.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Mean ORAC in patients with SCC was higher than the mean value in the control group. Statistically significant difference was observed in the study group versus the control group. No significant differences were observed for ORAC values in relation to histopathological grading, tumour size and spread to lymph nodes.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The obtained results can advocate local compensatory mechanism in saliva in response to increased oxidative stress associated with primary tumour. ORAC can become an additional factor in head and neck SCC prognosis, but further investigation is required.
authors.affiliation: Department of Oral Surgery, Medical University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland. chisel@o2.pl.
authors.forename: Piotr
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Wesołowski
authors.affiliation: Department of Physical Chemistry, Medical University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland.
authors.forename: Katarzyna
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Zawada
authors.affiliation: Department of Oral Surgery, Medical University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland.
authors.forename: Andrzej
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Wojtowicz
authors.affiliation: Department of Comprehensive Dentistry, Medical University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland.
authors.forename: Izabela
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Strużycka
authors.affiliation: Department of Oral Surgery, Medical University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland.
authors.forename: Tomasz
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kamiński
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000975:Antioxidants / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology*; D004249:DNA Damage; D005260:Female; D005609:Free Radicals / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D006258:Head and Neck Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology*; D006801:Humans; D007822:Laryngeal Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010084:Oxidation-Reduction; D000072257:Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity; D012463:Saliva / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D000077195:Squamous Cell Carcinoma of Head and Neck
chemical_list: D000975:Antioxidants; D005609:Free Radicals
keywords: antioxidant capacity; oxygen radical absorbance capacity; squamous cell carcinoma of head and neck