Breast Cancer Saliva Test to Make Dangerous Mammograms Obsolete

[Guest guest]

http://www.naturalnews.com/025348.html

 

 

(NaturalNews) Researchers are working to develop a saliva test for breast cancer

that could vastly reduce the use of dangerous and invasive breast cancer

screening techniques such as mammograms.

 

" This will be a noninvasive, quick means of detection, " said lead researcher

Charles Streckfus, a professor of diagnostic sciences at the Dental Branch of

the University of Texas (UT) at Houston. " With it, dentists will be able to

catch cancers before a woman can feel a lump. "

 

Researchers have discovered that the onset of breast cancer changes the density

of different proteins excreted by the salivary glands. In the current study,

published in the journal Cancer Investigation, Streckfus and other researchers

from the UT-Houston Dental Branch and Medical School compared the protein levels

found in the saliva of 10 women with breast cancer, 10 healthy women and 10

women with a type of tumor called fibroadenoma.

 

Fibroadenoma is the most common kind of benign breast tumor.

 

" Saliva is a complex mixture of proteins, " said researcher William Dubinsky. " We

go through a process that compares different samples by chemically labeling them

in such a way that we can not only identify the protein, but determine how much

of it is in each sample. This allows us to compare the levels of 150-200

different proteins in cancerous versus non-cancerous specimens to identify

possible markers for disease. "

 

The researchers identified 49 proteins that were present at different levels

between the three groups. These proteins should hypothetically allow doctors to

use such a saliva test to alert them when a woman has a tumor, and to determine

whether it is cancerous or benign.

 

" This is a unique finding, " Streckfus said, " as it targets both the benign and

malignant tumor, which could potentially reduce the number of false positives

and false negatives associated with current cancer diagnostics " .

 

Previously, the same team of researchers was able to correctly detect whether a

woman had breast cancer 85 percent of the time, using only one saliva protein as

a marker. With 49 different markers, Streckfus says that the accuracy of the

test should be closer to 95 percent.

 

In the current method, the saliva sample is placed onto a hand-held, gold-plated

chip or lab dish, developed by UT-Austin biochemists. A laser analyzes the

protein content of the sample.

 

" I see this as a future public health service by dentists, " Streckfus said.

" Most folks, especially women and children, visit the dental office way more

often than they ever see the physician. Saliva is a non-invasive, quicker way

for detection. "

 

Many obstacles remain before this test could be available, however. The first

step is more studies to confirm the effectiveness of the protein markers as

diagnostic tools in a larger group of patients. Streckfus and colleagues hope to

launch a large, multicenter clinical trial of the test within the next two

years, and to apply for FDA approval within five.

 

The only saliva test currently approved by the FDA is one for HIV/AIDS.

 

A saliva test for breast cancer has many advantages over current diagnostic

methods such as ultrasounds, mammograms, biopsies and blood tests. It would be

far less invasive and expensive than most such tests, and have a much higher

accuracy rate than blood tests, which are not currently favored for breast

cancer diagnosis due to their poor accuracy.

 

The higher accuracy of a saliva test comes in part from the fact that saliva

proteins are much easier to detect than the proteins in blood, Dubinsky said.

 

" In the case of breast cancer, saliva analysis has been used to monitor patient

response to chemotherapy or surgical treatment of the disease, " said Professor

Damien Walmsley, scientific adviser for the British Dental Association. " The

mouth itself is a good indicator of an individual's overall health, and dentists

already play an important role in diagnosing and detecting oral cancers. "

 

Streckfus said that a saliva test would be particularly valuable in places where

mammography centers are rare, such as in many Third World countries, or in

breast cancer survivors who need to be regularly monitored for potential cancer

recurrence.

 

Regular use of mammograms is not only expensive and emotionally distressing, but

can also be dangerous. Because women are exposed to X-ray radiation as part of

the mammogram procedure, regular mammogram use actually increases women's risk

of developing various cancers. For this reason, mammograms are not normally

performed for women under the age of 40, in whom the risk of breast cancer is

relatively low unless symptoms are present.

 

But Streckfus warned that a saliva test cannot utterly replace mammograms,

because the saliva test is unable to determine which breast contains the tumor.

 

Nonetheless, cancer patient advocates have greeted the new research as

promising. According to Leonard Lichtenfeld, deputy chief medical officer for

the American Cancer Society, the saliva test will one day be " a terrific

advance. "

 

" I think advances like this test portend the day when we'll be able to diagnose

disease that would be invisible using today's technologies, " Lichtenfeld said.

" [Patients will] be able to be diagnosed and treated before they would otherwise

know they have the disease. "

 

Streckfus and colleagues are also researching whether saliva tests can be used

to diagnose other cancers, including of the cervix, uterus, head, neck and

ovaries. Another group of researchers, at Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center, is

also working on a saliva test for head-and-neck cancer. According to

Lichtenfeld, the Johns Hopkins team is farther along than the UT-Houston team,

because their test relies on genetic rather than protein markers.

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