Clinical significance of salivary, serum, nitric oxide, and arginase in breast cancer

Background: Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer among females. A source of sampling for clinical diagnosis is saliva which has been utilized and it is a promising approach as collecting saliva is relatively easy and non-invasive. Over the past two decades, utilizing saliva as a biomarker, specifically for early cancer diagnosis has attracted much research interest. Aim: To alter the sample collection from blood to saliva for some components such as nitric oxide (NO) and arginase, in order to detect an easy, earlier and noninvasive diagnostic test as biomarkers and prognostic tools in patients with breast cancer. Methods: A total of 73 female volunteers were participated in this study, 25 healthy volunteers compared with 48 patients with breast cancer in order to estimate and compare both salivary and blood level components such as NO and arginase. Results: The mean blood and salivary samples for both nitric oxide and arginase levels were significantly raised in patients with breast cancer when they compared with controls (p<0.001). Conclusions: In this study the changing of salivary levels of NO and arginase as compared with blood may be used as a non-invasive diagnostic tool alternative to serum testing component, which were significantly increased in patients with breast cancer in both blood and saliva and also, may be used as biomarkers and tumor progression tests in diagnosing of breast cancer.