SALIVA AS DIAGNOSTIC TOOL - EXPRESSION OF GM-CSF IN ORAL POTENTIALLY MALIGNANT DISORDERS AND ORAL SQUAMOUS CELL CARCINOMA PATIENTS.

Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma (OSCC) is most common malignant tumor of oral cavity with the survival rate of 60-80% if detected during its early stages; however this number drops to 30-40% when the cancer is diagnosed during advanced stages. Oral lesions are in direct contact with saliva, which makes measurement of tumor markers in saliva an attractive, non-invasive, chair-side diagnostic/prognostic aid and alternative to serum testing. It may be used to measure specific salivary macromolecules as well as examining proteomic or genomic targets such as enzymes, cytokines, growth factors, metalloproteinases, endothelin, telomerase, cytokeratins, mRNAs and DNA transcripts. One of such growth factor is granulocyte macrophage-colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF). Aim:- To evaluate the change in salivary expression of GM-CSF in Oral Potentially Malignant Disorders(OPMD) and OSCC patients and to evaluate the reliability of salivary GM-CSF as diagnostic/ prognostic marker in OPMD. material and method:- In this study, we collected salivary samples from OSCC patients (n=25), OPMD patients (n=25) and healthy controls (n=25), and expression of GM-CSF was measured/estimated by quantitative ELISA method. Result:- The results shown significant difference in expression of salivary GM-CSF in patients with OSCC and OPMD as compared to control group (P<0.001). Conclusion:- From the result, it was concluded that GM-CSF is an important proinflammatory cytokine, detectable at higher concentration in saliva of patients of OPMD and OSCC and prove to be useful as molecular biomarker for diagnosis and predicting malignant transformation.