Serum Glutathione Levels in Oral Leukoplakia and Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma- A Clinicopathological Study

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. Recently studies have been conducted to determine the levels of serum antioxidants for risk assessment of oral cancer. The aim of this study was to estimate the levels of glutathione in serum 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. Serum sample collected from the patients by venipuncture 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 serum glutathione in between oral cancer, oral leukoplakia groups when compared to healthy controls. The levels of serum glutathione were lower in oral cancer when compared to oral leukoplakia but the difference was not statistically significant. The results suggest that serum glutathione level estimation could be used to determine the risk of oral cancer.