Nearly 300,000 people are affected annually by oral cancer. Patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma, a form of oral cancer have a low five-year survival rate and a high rate of recurrence especially when the cancer has metastasized in lymph nodes located in the neck. It is also a fact that often mouth cancer is not detected until it's in the late stages. 

In the recent research, researchers have found a simple way to detect oral squamous cell carcinoma. Researches found that a simple test that detects proteins in saliva can help in detection of oral cancer. The study was led by Shen Hu, PhD, assistant professor of oral biology and proteomics at the University of California-Los Angeles School of Dentistry.

Researchers collected saliva samples from 64 patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma and 64 healthy patients. Researchers chose five potential biomarkers, to detect the presence of oral cancer. Researchers were successful 93 percent of the time.  

The importance of this study lies in the fact that this is the first study that showed a practical way to use saliva protein levels for oral cancer detection. Researchers believe that the discovery of these biomarkers may lead to a useful clinical tool for noninvasive diagnosis of oral cancer in the future since collection of saliva is very easy. 

Shen Hu said: "This test is currently not available, but we are developing near-the-site-of-patient-care microfluidic devices to detect these markers that we can use in clinical trials. I believe a test measuring these biomarkers will come to a point of regular use in the future." 

Hu added: "We have demonstrated a new approach for cancer biomarker discovery using saliva proteomics."