Salivary auto-antibodies as noninvasive diagnostic markers of oral cavity squamous cell carcinoma.

BACKGROUND Oral cavity squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is one of the most common cancers worldwide, and its incidence is still increasing. Approximately 50% of patients with OSCC die within 5 years after diagnosis, mostly ascribed to the fact that the majority of patients present advanced stages of OSCC at the time of diagnosis. METHODS To discover salivary biomarkers for ameliorating the detection of OSCC, herein, we developed a multiplexed bead-based platform to simultaneously detect auto-antibodies (auto-Abs) in salivary samples. RESULTS Compared with healthy individuals, the salivary levels of anti-p53, anti-survivin, anti-Hsp60, and anti-RPLP0 were significantly elevated in patients with OSCC. Noteworthily, the elevated levels of anti-p53, anti-survivin, and anti-Hsp60 were already observed in individuals with oral potentially malignant disorder. Moreover, the salivary levels of anti-p53, anti-survivin, anti-Hsp60, anti-RPLP0, and anti-CK8 were significantly elevated in patients with early-stage OSCC compared with those in healthy individuals. Most importantly, the use of a combined panel of salivary anti-p53, anti-survivin, anti-Hsp60, and anti-RPLP0 largely improves the detection of OSCC. CONCLUSION Collectively, our results reveal that the salivary auto-Abs are effective OSCC biomarkers and the four-auto-Ab panel provides a novel and practicable approach for OSCC screening. IMPACT This study provides the first evidence for the potential clinical application of salivary auto-Abs in OSCC diagnosis.