The efficacy of salivary biomarkers versus serum biomarkers in diagnosis of breast carcinoma

Abstract

Background/aim The diagnosis of breast cancer depends mainly on mammography or histopathology, but recently, salivary biomarkers have proved to be a promising tool as a noninvasive diagnostic technique. Cancer antigen (CA)15-3 is a widely used prognostic serum breast cancer biomarker. Cytokines have been used as biomarkers in research for prognosis and have been related with symptoms and adverse outcomes in breast cancer. The present study aimed to assess the accuracy of CA15-3 and interleukin (IL)-1β expression in saliva versus serum of patients with breast cancer. Patients and methods This study enrolled 26 patients with breast cancer from El Demerdash Hospital, Cairo, Egypt. In addition, 16 healthy individuals served as a control group. Saliva and blood samples were collected from all participants. Saliva was collected in the morning at least 2 h after the last intake of food. CA15-3 and IL-1β expressions were measured in saliva and serum using the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay technique. Results The present results indicated that there were significant differences (P<0.05) in the expression of CA15-3 between patients with breast cancer and healthy individuals. Moreover, a significant difference was found in the expression of IL-1β between patients with breast cancer and healthy individuals in both serum and saliva samples. There were higher expressions (P<0.05) of CA15-3 in saliva than in serum as well as a higher expression (P<0.05) of IL-1β in saliva than in serum. Conclusion Saliva can be used as a diagnostic tool in early detection of breast cancer with high accuracy in comparison with serum.

Keywords

• breast cancer
• salivary biomarkers
• cancer antigen 15-3 and interleukin-1β