Salivary Biomarkers: Screening the high-risk smile

General
1

Why saliva?

Saliva is non-invasive and cost-effective diagnostic fluid which is ideal for early detection and community screening in high-risk populations.

Key salivary biomarkers Genetic markers: p53, miRNAs (miR-21, miR-31), DNA methylation changes.

  • Metabolic markers: polyamines

  • Proteomic markers: IL-6, IL-8, TNF- alpha

Why salivary biomarkers are important?

  • Before appearance of clinical lesions, molecular changes begin way before.

  • Support early detection and prevention of disease progression

Advantages over conventional biopsy

  • Painless

  • Patient friendly

  • Suitable for mass screening

Current limitations

  • Lack of standardized panels

  • Mostly adjunctive

Can saliva-based tests become the first line of screening for oral cancer?

1 Like
2

Saliva-based diagnostics show great potential for early oral cancer screening due to their non-invasive, patient-friendly, and cost-effective nature. Although standardization is still a challenge, advancing biomarker research could soon make saliva tests a reliable first-line screening tool, especially for high-risk populations.

1 Like
3

Saliva-based tests are rapidly emerging but serves as adjunctive tools rather than a complete replacement for conventional methods due to the need of standardized protocols across various clinical settings.

1 Like