Gateway to diagnosis: Genetic ‘biomarkers’ in saliva predict oral cancer
7/20/2005 South Bend, IN Patty Levine South Bend Tribune (www.southbendtribune.com) At your next periodic dental checkup and cleaning, your dentist might take a few extra minutes to examine your tongue, gums, the roof and floor of your mouth. This thorough mouth exam probes for oral cancer, a disease which will strike 30, 000 Americans this year and kill 8,000. But within two years, you may be able to go for your regular dental visit, spit in a cup and, before the appointment is over, find out from an analysis of your saliva whether you're at risk for oral cancer. In a small study reported last year, at the American Association for Cancer Research in Anaheim, Calif., researchers from the UCLA School of Dentistry found that genetic "biomarkers" isolated in saliva predicted oral cancer in about nine out of 10 cases. According to this team of scientists, out of about 3,000 distinct bits of genetic material called messenger RNA in saliva, the appearance of four particular "biomarkers" may signal the presence of cancer of the mouth, tongue, larynx or pharynx -- even before any symptoms appear. Although it is not yet clear whether these four RNA particles are detectable because their corresponding genes are activated, or whether their presence indicates the body's inflammatory response to the cancer, the use of saliva for predicting cancer is significant. And in a study reported this past April from Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, scientists found that an increase of another type of genetic material found [...]