Evaluation of Salivary Transferrin in patients with Oral Squamous cell Carcinoma (OSCC)

Abstract

Introduction: Oral cancer is the sixth most common cancer in men and the fifteenth in women. About 94% of the mouth cacers is the squamous cell carcinoma. The most common place is in the tongue and usually involves posterior-lateral and abdominal surfaces. The incidence of oral cancer is age-related and this could reflect the time needed to incorporate genetic changes, accumulation of exposure to triggers (including physical and chemical stimuli, viruses and hormonal effects), and reduced immune function due to age. The identification of tumor biomarker is the first action necessary to advance the early diagnosis of mouth lesions and malignancies. So researchers are looking for simpler ways to detect it timely. Salivary biomarkers, such as transferrin, have a good sensitivity and specificity for the early diagnosis of oral SCC. Given that clinical diagnosis of SCC is usually possible at advanced stages of the disease and despite complex and advanced treatments, it has a very low prognosis. So the early identification of this lesion is very beneficial. Therefore, this study was designed to evaluate the salivary transferrin levels of oral SCC patients. Methods and materials: The target population is people with squamous cell carcinoma in the mouth. 40 patients with OSCC and 40 healthy subjects were selected based on entry and exit criteria and were informed before obtaining informed consent. Saliva collection was performed according to the NAVAZESH-1993 protocol. Therefore, 5 ml of saliva were prepared from each person and then amount of saline transferrin was calculated by ELISA method. Data obtained from the study were analyzed by descriptive statistics (frequency, percentage, mean ± standard deviation) and independent sample t -test and analyzed by SPSS software version 17. In this study, p value less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant.

Findings: The mean and standard deviation of the salivary transferrin in the control group were 1.23450 and 0.374337 respectively, and in the case group it was equal to 2.51263 for the mean and 0.463510 for the standard deviation. Conclusion: The results showed that there is a significant difference between the salivary transferrin variable concentration mean in the two groups under the study and the average amount of salivary transferrin concentration in the case group was higher than the control group. (P-value <0.001)