British journal of cancer
July 21, 2026 · via Europe PMC
Non-invasive biomarkers for early oral cancer detection through multiomics approach.
Verma TP, Singh S, Meloth S, +5 more, Jha HC.
AI summary — for doctors, generated from the abstract only
Saliva and surface-swab molecular profiles may separate oral submucous fibrosis from oral squamous cell carcinoma with high accuracy.
What was studied
Combined metabolomic and proteomic profiling of saliva and lesion swabs from 15 OSCC patients, 20 with OSMF and 27 healthy controls, across four group comparisons.
Key findings
- Top salivary discriminators included linoelaidic acid, gamma-glutamylcysteine and 3-hydroxybutyryl-CoA
- OSCC showed upregulated histone variants, keratins and BPI-fold-containing proteins
- Biomarker panels reached AUC of 0.96 or higher for separating OSMF from OSCC
Clinical relevance
Non-invasive tests could eventually help monitor premalignant oral lesions and flag malignant change. Clinicians in high-risk regions may watch this area.
Who should care
Limitations
The cohort is very small and from one setting, with no independent validation described, so accuracy may be overestimated.
Salivary multiomic panels look promising for oral cancer detection, but need larger validation before clinical use.
This is an AI-generated summary of the published abstract, not a clinical recommendation. It may not reflect the full text or subsequent updates — verify against the original source before acting on it.
Abstract
Background
Non-invasive biomarker-based approaches are urgently needed to support early identification and monitoring of Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) and its precursor, oral submucous fibrosis (OSMF).
Methods
We employed combined metabolomic and proteomic analyses to profile saliva and lesion surface swabs from clinically diagnosed OSCC (n = 15), OSMF (n = 20), and healthy controls (n = 27). Polar and nonpolar metabolites were extracted separately from saliva, while proteins were isolated from exfoliated mucosal epithelial cells. Differential expression, pathway enrichment, and biomarker classification were performed across four comparisons: OSCC vs non-OSCC (controls + OSMF), OSCC vs OSMF, OSMF vs control, and OSCC vs control.
Results
Distinct molecular changes were observed across the health-to-cancer spectrum. Top discriminatory salivary metabolites included linoelaidic acid, gamma-glutamylcysteine, and 3-hydroxybutyryl-CoA, implicating dysregulated linoleic acid metabolism, redox imbalance, and fatty acid β-oxidation in pathogenesis. Proteomic data revealed significant upregulation of histone variants, cytoskeletal keratins, and BPI-fold-containing proteins in OSCC, reflecting chromatin remodelling and epithelial-mesenchymal transition. Multivariate biomarker panels achieved high accuracy (AUC ≥ 0.96) for classifying OSMF from OSCC.
Conclusion
Our combined metabolomic and proteomic profiling revealed non-invasive molecular signatures for early detection and monitoring of OSCC and OSMF.
DOI
10.1038/s41416-026-03540-9
PMID
42481686
Research metadata (titles, abstracts, authors, publication dates) is sourced from Europe PMC, which aggregates content from PubMed/MEDLINE, PubMed Central, and other providers under the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM/NCBI). NLM does not claim copyright on abstracts; the original journal publishers or authors may hold rights to the full articles. AI-generated summaries are derived only from the abstract, never the full text, and are always labeled as AI-generated.
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