Saliva, a Secret Tool
Pancreatic cancer is one of the deadliest forms of cancer, partly because it is extremely difficult to detect. Historically, warning signs are vague and are often attributed to other ailments preventing early detection. Unlike breast cancer and prostate cancer, there are no screening tools available and it is usually not found until the later stages when it has already spread throughout the body.
75 percent of those with this disease will die less than a year after diagnosis and just 6 percent will survive 5 years.
Recently, a team from UCLA Dentistry led by Dr. David Wong discovered through studies on tumor-ridden mice, that pancreatic cancer biomarkers reside in saliva.
Biomarkers are characteristics that can be measured; those measurements are then used to make assessments. For example: weight, body mass index (BMI) and waist to hip ratio are biomarkers to detect obesity and metabolic disorders; blood pressure, heart rate, cholesterol and fasting glucose levels are biomarkers to measure general health.
This discovery is a major step toward creating a noninvasive tool that would allow doctors the ability to detect pancreatic cancer through a simple test using saliva; opposed to the typical biopsy which can be invasive and complicated. It also paves the way to more fully explore the use of salivary biomarkers for the detection of life threatening diseases.
The Journal of the American Dental Association, January 2014
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