Source: mdn.mainichi.jp
Author: staff

Researchers develop high-precision cancer tests using patients’ saliva
Researchers have developed a high-precision method to diagnose three types of cancer from saliva, enabling patients to undergo tests without physical discomfort.

The method, announced at the current meeting of the international Metabolomics Society in the Netherlands, was developed by a team including researchers from Keio University’s Institute for Advanced Biosciences.

“We want to proceed with analysis of other types of cancer and other illnesses, and put this to practical use,” university research lecturer Masahiro Sugimoto said.

Sugimoto said the University of California, Los Angeles, which is participating in the research, collected saliva from 215 people aged 11 to 87. Eighty-seven of the patients were healthy, 18 had cancer of the pancreas, 30 had breast cancer, 69 had oral cancer, and 11 had gum disease. Researchers analyzed the 500 or so types of substances found in their saliva, and identified 54 substances whose concentrations differed markedly between healthy people and people with three specific types of cancer.

Since concentrations of a single substance varied among the subjects, the researchers combined several substances and then examined the concentrations.

As a result, the team found that they could identify patients with cancer of the pancreas with 99 percent accuracy by examining five substances in their saliva including the amino acid phenylalanine. Using similar tests, the researchers were able to identify breast cancer with 95 percent accuracy and oral cancer with 80 percent accuracy.

Sugimoto said that research to diagnose cancer from a patient’s saliva was being carried out around the world, but the low accuracy of tests has remained an issue.