Saliva as a Non-Invasive Diagnostic Medium in Proteomics for Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma Detection

Non-invasive diagnostic techniques are essential for the screening of oral cancer to reduce high mortality associated with it. The acknowledgement of various research advancements namely omic research and technological advances in the field of genomes has led to an increased use of saliva collection. Obtaining saliva for diagnosis is simple and non-invasive and is safe for both the health worker and the patient. It also permits easy and cost-effective storage methods. Around 3000 differently expressed proteins and peptides have been identified in various proteomic studies involving saliva, and hence, salivary proteomics is being progressively used for the early diagnosis of numerous diseases such as oral cancer, breast cancer, and several autoimmune disorders, among others. The salivary analysis riding on the recent advancements in technology, can prove to be of much more importance in near future.