Amid new diagnostic methods and treatment options, early detection is an emerging paradigm which seeks to decrease patient morbidity and mortality. And here comes saliva diagnostics with huge potential, possibly replacing the painful pricking on fingers or on wrists.
Saliva diagnostics is emerging as the latest and easiest way to detect disease at a phase where it is easily treatable. It is likely to provide new opportunities to use saliva liquid biopsy for early assessment of lung cancer because of the clinical performance of cancer detection, non-invasive collection process and the ease of collecting, transporting and storing saliva, said researchers.
At the 96th General Session of the International Association for Dental Research (IADR), held in conjunction with the IADR Pan European Regional (PER) Congress, David Wong, University of California, Los Angeles, USA presented his research “Saliva Diagnostics and Salivaomics” as part of the symposium “Will Saliva Translate to a Real Diagnostic Tool?” on Saturday, July 28, 2018 in London.
Research conducted on using saliva to measure stress hormones, enzyme levels, developmental disease biomarkers and even cancer mutations has revealed positive outcome, said researchers. “There are a variety of scenarios with which saliva can be used,” said Wong. “One of the most exciting emerging frontiers of saliva is liquid biopsy, which is a non-invasive means to assess the presence and characteristics of cancer in a patient with an indeterminate pulmonary nodule detected by low dose computerized tomography (LDCT).”
Saliva liquid biopsy delivers the best performance in the detection of circulating tumor DNA of lung cancer. This research was presented as part of the symposium. If validated biomarkers were combined with high-quality detection tools.
saliva would open up a new frontier in high-quality healthcare allowing physicians, dentists and patients to work and together for real-time health monitoring and high-impact personalized preventative medicine, said the study.