Biochemical markers in saliva of patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma

Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is consider to be one of the common type of head and neck cancer. Only 50% of advanced oral cancer would survive for 5 years, as this rate has been constant over the last two decades. In order to decrease mortality rate, a new tools are require for early stage diagnosis. Saliva is of great importance for diagnosis of several systemic diseases, and its use for diagnosis of OSCC has been used extensively. Many salivary enzymes along with DNA, RNA and protein obtained from saliva, cancerous cells and inflammatory cells of oral cavity. Extensive studies carried out from genomic and proteomic perspective to identify the potential biomarkers in body fluid as well as saliva and blood for diagnosis and prognosis of OSCC. This article reviewed the recently identified biomarkers from saliva for OSCC. In addition, the biomarkers which have been correlated with OSCC tumor malignancy by molecular pathology analysis are also described. Finally, the potential biomarkers that have been demonstrated to associate with the malignant OSCC may be used for salivary screening for high-risk patients are discussed. This review article may help to identify the potential biomarkers for screening and the molecular pathology analysis for high-risk patients of OSCC.