Salivary biomarkers as tools for oral squamous cell carcinoma diagnosis: A systematic review.
The oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) survival rate is influenced by the fact that diagnoses occur mostly in late stages of the disease. Thus, there is a clear contribution in the early findings, making the use of minimally invasive techniques for diagnosis, such as analysis of salivary markers, interesting tools. A systematic review was performed with all studies that establish a comparison between the levels of saliva-based markers found in patients with OSCC compared with cancer-free individuals. Twenty-eight studies were included. Of them, only 12 showed some caution with oral conditions before sample collection. A wide range of potential markers was evaluated; however, the comparison between studies was impaired because each marker was hardly explored by more than 1 article. The lack of methodological criteria within studies and the absence of consensus on marker choice are obstacles for future researches. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Head Neck 39: 797-811, 2017.