West Asia Organization for Cancer Prevention (WAOCP), APOCP's West Asia Chapter. Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 1513-7368 20 7 2019 07 01 Salivary Tumour Necrosis Factor-α as a Biomarker in Oral Leukoplakia and Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma 2087 2093 88635 10.31557/APJCP.2019.20.7.2087 EN Deepthi G Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology, Government Dental College and Hospitals, Hyderabad, India. 0000-0001-6545-2399 S R K Nandan Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology, Kamineni Institute of Dental Sciences, Narketpally, Nalgonda, Telangana, India. Pavan G Kulkarni Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology, Kamineni Institute of Dental Sciences, Narketpally, Nalgonda, Telangana, India. Journal Article 2019 01 16 Background: Oral cancer is one of the life threatening disease which requires an availability of a biomarker for its<br />early detection and also for effective treatment strategies. The current study is done to evaluate the efficacy of one such<br />biomarker i.e. TNF- α as an indicator for oral precancer and oral cancer. Objectives: To evaluate the efficacy of Tumour<br />necrosis factor - alpha (TNF)-α as a salivary biomarker in histopathologically diagnosed cases of oral leukoplakia and<br />Oral squamous cell carcinoma. To correlate the levels of TNF- α with varying histologic grading in Oral Squamous<br />Cell Carcinoma and dysplasia grading in Oral leukoplakia or Hyperkeratosis. Materials and Methods: The study<br />group included 90 subjects that were divided into three groups. OSCC (n=30), leukoplakia (n=30) and controls (n=30).<br />Cases were selected based on inclusion and exclusion criteria of the study. Salivary samples were then collected from<br />all three groups. Salivary levels of TNF-α were estimated using Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA). The<br />data on concentration gradients obtained were subjected to appropriate statistical analysis. Results: The results of the<br />present study demonstrated higher levels of salivary TNF-α in individuals with OSCC compared to leukoplakia and<br />healthy control subjects with a high level of statistical significance. ROC curve analysis along with diagnostic parameter<br />calculation also revealed that salivary TNF-α to be a better medium for detecting OSCC. There is also an increase in<br />the salivary TNF-α levels with increase in the histological grade of differentiation in OSCC as well as leukoplakia.<br />Conclusion: The present study concludes that salivary TNF – α can be used as a prognostic biomarker of OSCC. In<br />view of the elevated levels of TNF – α in saliva of individuals with severe dysplasia, it can also be used to monitor the<br />malignant transformation to leukoplakia to OSCC. https://journal.waocp.org/article_88635_44291e539b79fbeb716472fabc050da9.pdf