Department of Nursing and Stomatology. Faculty of Health Sciences, King Juan Carlos University, 28922 Alcorcón. Madrid, Spain.
Adult's Dentistry Department. Oral Medicine, European University of Madrid, 28670 Villaviciosa de Odón. Madrid., Spain.
Biomed Res Int. 2022 Oct 25;2022:2739869. doi: 10.1155/2022/2739869. eCollection 2022.
The early detection of cancer, and in particular oral cancer, has been a priority objective of study in recent years. Saliva has been proposed as an easy-to-obtain means of providing the necessary information to diagnose malignant lesions in the oral cavity, since it can be obtained very easily and completely noninvasively. There are a number of molecules, known as biomarkers, which may be involved in the malignant transformation of oral lesions, and which have different natures. The involvement of proteins ("proteomics"), metabolites ("metabolomics"), and even certain genes in the structural changes of altered tissue has been investigated in order to establish validated parameters for the early diagnosis of oral cancer. In addition, the development of new analytical assay methods that can reduce costs and obtain better results in terms of sensitivity and specificity has been a key point in recent research in this field. Even though there are numerous biomarkers with results showing high sensitivity and specificity, there is still a need for more studies, with a larger sample and with analytical methods that can constitute a real advance in time and cost. Although salivary biomarkers are a promising new diagnostic tool for oral cancer, for the moment they do not replace biopsy as the "gold standard".
近年来，癌症的早期检测，特别是口腔癌的早期检测，一直是研究的重点目标。唾液被认为是提供诊断口腔恶性病变所需信息的一种简便方法，因为它可以非常容易且完全无创地获得。有许多分子被称为生物标志物，它们可能参与口腔病变的恶性转化，并且具有不同的性质。为了建立口腔癌早期诊断的验证参数，已经研究了蛋白质（“蛋白质组学”）、代谢物（“代谢组学”）甚至某些基因在组织结构改变中的参与情况。此外，开发能够降低成本并在灵敏度和特异性方面获得更好结果的新型分析检测方法，是该领域最近研究的一个关键点。尽管有许多具有高灵敏度和特异性结果的生物标志物，但仍需要更多的研究，包括更大的样本量和能够在时间和成本上构成真正进步的分析方法。尽管唾液生物标志物是口腔癌有前途的新诊断工具，但目前它们并不能替代活检作为“金标准”。
