Screening for breast cancer and the early detection of other tumors one day may be as simple as spitting into a collection tube or cup, according to recent studies by UCLA researchers. In one early study based on a risk model, presented here at the 96th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research, the UCLA scientists reported that genetic “biomarkers” isolated in saliva predicted oral squamous cell carcinoma in about nine out of 10 cases. A recent study by this group, published in Clinical Cancer Research, disclosed similar predictive powers for head and neck cancers. “These results indicate that such biomarkers found in saliva, called salivary transcriptomes, can be exploited for robust, high-throughput and reproducible tools for early disease detection,” said David T. Wong, professor and associate dean of research at the UCLA School of Dentistry and the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, the study’s senior investigator.
