Relationship of Glutathione Status with Oral Pre-cancer and Cancer

Oral cancer accounts for the majority of the cancer in South East Asian region and especially in the Indian subcontinent. If diagnosed at an early stage the disease is reported to have a better prognosis. Sialochemistry involving antioxidants has recently gained importance for oral cancer risk assessment because of its non-invasive nature. The aim of this study was to estimate the levels of glutathione in saliva of patients with oral cancer, oral leukoplakia and healthy controls. Three study groups comprising of, 25 oral cancer patients, 25 oral leukoplakia patients and 25 healthy controls were involved in the study. Saliva sample collected from the patients were evaluated by Beutler’s method. The data obtained were analyzed using the one way ANOVA test. There was a significant difference between the levels of salivary glutathione in between oral cancer, oral leukoplakia groups when compared to healthy controls. The levels of salivary glutathione were lower in oral cancer when compared to oral leukoplakia but the difference was not statistically significant. The results suggest that salivary gluthione level estimation could be used for determine the risk of oral cancer as a non-invasive modality.