Evidence of Active Cancers Detected in Saliva

A test can detect cancer with high sensitivity and specificity using a small sample of saliva.

Saliva from cancer patients and healthy donors was tested using a slightly modified RECAF chemiluminescence assay. The chemiluminescence format was chosen for practical reasons but in light of the results found, it is anticipated that the enzyme-linked immunosorbant assay (ELISA) format will perform equally well. A variety of malignancies was tested, including lung, breast, and gastrointestinal cancers.

The test detected cancer with 87% sensitivity and 91% specificity (sensitivity is the percentage of cancer patients that are positive with the test and specificity is the percentage of healthy individuals that the test reports as negative).

The number of samples was relatively small but the statistical significance was very high (p < 0.00025). In medicine, the lower the value of p (probability due to chance), the more significant is the result. A p < 0.05 is considered as significant and p < 0.01 is considered as very significant.

BioCurex Inc. (Richmond, BC, Canada) announced results showing that its RECAF test detected cancer with high sensitivity and specificity using a small sample of saliva. The work was done as part of an ongoing collaboration with the Goshen Center for Cancer Care in Indiana.

Dr. Kenneth Pennington, member of the oncology team at the Goshen Center for Cancer Care (Richmond, BC, Canada) stated: "The current patients tested have evidence of widespread disease. It will be important to study the saliva of patients with early stage disease to see if these findings are present in early stages as well. These studies are currently being planned and will be active in the near future. If the previous findings are confirmed in early stage disease, then a new paradigm for screening for common cancers will exist."

In fact, previous results obtained with serum samples have shown that the RECAF test can detect early stages (Stage I and II) of prostate and breast cancer where the curability is highest.


Related Links:
Goshen Center for Cancer Care
BioCurex