The potential use of saliva to detect recurrence of disease in women with breast carcinoma

• Published in: Journal of oral pathology & medicine 2002-08, Vol.31 (7), p.421-431
• Main Authors: Bigler, Lenora R., Streckfus, Charles F., Copeland, Lynn, Burns, Rebecca, Dai, Xiaoli, Kuhn, Melinda, Martin, Patricia, Bigler, Steven A.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult; Aged; Biological and medical sciences; Biomarkers, Tumor - analysis; Biomarkers, Tumor - blood; breast cancer; Breast Neoplasms - prevention & control; Breast Neoplasms - surgery; c-erbB-2; Carcinoma - prevention & control; Carcinoma - surgery; Chemotherapy, Adjuvant; Chi-Square Distribution; Dentistry; Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; Female; Follow-Up Studies; Genital system. Mammary gland; Gynecology. Andrology. Obstetrics; Humans; Immunoenzyme Techniques; Investigative techniques, diagnostic techniques (general aspects); Linear Models; Mammary gland diseases; Matched-Pair Analysis; Medical sciences; Middle Aged; Mucin-1 - analysis; Mucin-1 - blood; Neoplasm Recurrence, Local - prevention & control; Neoplasm Staging; Pathology. Cytology. Biochemistry. Spectrometry. Miscellaneous investigative techniques; Radiotherapy, Adjuvant; Receptor, ErbB-2 - analysis; Receptor, ErbB-2 - blood; recurrence; ROC Curve; saliva; Saliva - chemistry; Salivary Proteins and Peptides - analysis; Statistics as Topic; Treatment Outcome; Tumors
• ISSN: 0904-2512; 1600-0714
• DOI: 10.1034/j.1600-0714.2002.00123.x

Background:  Approximately 1 woman in every 10 will develop breast cancer in her lifetime. It has been shown that screening for breast cancer can reduce breast cancer mortality. The use of a saliva‐based test could prove to be very useful in post‐operative and/or adjunctive therapy management of breast cancer patients. Methods:  The following study was undertaken to establish the possible usefulness of the salivary protein product of the oncogene c‐erbB‐2 in following patients diagnosed with carcinoma of the breast. Included in this study were 25 patients with a mean age of 54 years with varying histological diagnoses and stages of carcinoma of the breast. ELISA assays for c‐erbB‐2 and CA 15–3 were performed on serum and stimulated whole saliva samples collected on all patients prior to any adjunct therapy or surgery and sequentially during therapy. Results:  The results of the GLM analyses using marker concentration as the dependent variable and treatment regimen and the serial assessments as independent variables yielded a significant overall model for both the serum (P