Evaluation of Salivary Sialic Acid in Patients With Different Clinico-Pathological Stages of Oral Leukoplakia and Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma - A Cross Sectional Study

V.T. Hemalatha¹, Ravi David Austin², N. Manisundar³, T. Sarumathi⁴ and V. Aarthi Nisha⁵

1,5Department of Oral Medicine & Radiology , Sree Balaji Dental College & Hospital, Bharath University, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. 2Rajah Muthiah Dental College & Hospital, Annamalai University, Chidambaram, Tamil Nadu, India. 3Department of Periodontics , Sree Balaji Dental College & Hospital, Bharath University, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. 4Department Of Oral Medicine & Radiology , Sree Balaji Dental College & Hospital, Bharath University, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India.

DOI : http://dx.doi.org/10.13005/bbra/1147

ABSTRACT: Early detection of oral cancer is significantly potential with noninvasive methods like salivary analysis which is of utmost importance to reduce the risk rate of advanced stage.As there is paucity in studies performing clinicopathological staging and grading of precancerous and cancerous conditions, this study prompted us to evaluate salivary sialic acid in patients with different clinico pathological stages of oral leukoplakia and oral squamous cell carcinoma in order to develop cost effective,simple diagnostic method. Unstimulated salivary sample for the present study comprised a total of 20 healthy controls (Group I), 20 Oral leukoplakia patients(Group II) and 20 oral squamous cell carcinoma patients(Group III). Estimation of salivary sialic acid levels (free and protein bound) were performed by using Ultra violet visible Spectrophotometer. This was correlated with the clinicopathological staging and grading of oral leukoplakia and oral squamous cell carcinoma. The stastical comparisons were performed by analysis of variance (ANOVA) followed by student's paired t-test and f test. Sialic acid (free & protein bound) levels were significantly increased in oral squamous cell carcinoma patients and oral leukoplakia patients compared to controls . Protein bound Salivary sialic acid was significantly increased in OSCC when compared with oral leukoplakia patients. Significant higher levels of free sialic acid and protein bound sialic acid was found in well-differentiated OSCC cases when compared to other two grades. Salivary parameters offer scope for detailed future research on their applications in screening, diagnosis, and management of cancer. Sialic acid is a sensitive marker of oral cancer. Elevated levels of free and protein-bound salivary sialic acid in leukoplakia and oral cancer patients indicate its importance as a tumor marker.

KEYWORDS: Oral cancer; Sialic Acid (Free and Protein bound); OSCC (Oral squamous cell carcinoma)

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