SALIVARY BIOMARKERS FOR MONITORING THE COURSE OF CANCER DEVELOPMENT – REAL PERSPECTIVES

Recently, the diagnostic use of saliva in medicine has become a major goal for many researchers. There are many advantages of using saliva diagnostics. Its drawing is non-invasive, painless, quickly repeated, and straightforward. Its diagnostic potential has been demonstrated, in particular for infectious diseases and diseases of the oral cavity. Because of the unabated frequency of occurrence of malignant neoplastic diseases, especially in seniors, this paper aims at presenting an overview of chosen studies that have used saliva in the diagnostic and monitoring of selected malignant diseases. The potential use of saliva in the diagnosis of early-stage lung cancer, by detecting genetic material in saliva and analysis of characteristic mutations of the EGFR gene, has been described. Additionally, prostate cancer can be detected by positive identification of microRNA markers in saliva. Evaluation of PSA concentrations in saliva has also been carried out and obtained results were correlated with blood concentrations. There are also reports concerning the Ca15-3 marker in the saliva in women with breast cancer. The evaluation of lung cancer resistance protein in the saliva of these patients has also been investigated. The results of the cited studies are promising and give hope for the potential use for salivary diagnosis of these cancers.