Common Salivary biochemical markers for early detection of Oral Squamous Cellcarcinoma: a review

ABSTRACT

Oral Cancer [95% of which is squamous cell carcinoma] is a common and fatal malignancy.Globally, Oral Cancer accounts for 2-4% of all cases while it is regarded as the sixth most common cancer in Asia.Prevalence of Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma [OSCC]in Pakistan is 10%. Saliva, a reflection of human health has been used as an investigative tool forover more than two thousand years.Direct contact between saliva and the Oral Cancer makes assessment of salivary tumor markers an effective alternative to serum testing. A saliva based test could be a non -invasive as well as cost-effective method in the diagnosis and follow-up of subjects with Oral Cancer.This article reviews the recently established biomarkers for OSCC such as Matrix Metalloproteinase [MMP], Cytokeratin's, Cancer Antigen, Tumor suppressor gene P53 etc.which are of great importance in early detection.Oral cancer is usually diagnosed in late stages due to lack of definitive tumor markers for early detection. Initial diagnosis of Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma can lead to early cure as compared to a diagnosis at a later stage. Thousands of presumptive biomarkers have been analyzed and revealed, amongst which we included only those which have been thoroughly investigated by different researchers for Oral Cancer.The purpose of this review article is to providethe current status of knowledge regarding tumor markers in saliva of Oral Cancer patients. This precise review included all articles that were used for the advancement of information about potential biomarkers in Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma. Appropriate articles were determined according to a reconsideration of abstracts. Search of academic and published literature was carried utilizing the electronic databases of Pub Med, Google scholar, Elsevier from 2000 to 2015 for English-language articles. The search terms applied were "biochemical markers and Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma" The subjects, titles and abstracts of articles were appraised. Entire and complete text matter and reviews of the studies and researches were analyzed when the abstract met the inclusion framework. Evaluation of selected data includes a serious and detailed review of abstracts or full text papers