Evaluation of salivary metabolomics in oral leukoplakia and oral squamous cell carcinoma

Metabolomics is the study of metabolome which describes the full repertoire of small molecules, and the analysis of salivary metabolomics may help in identifying tumor-specific biomarkers for early diagnosis and prediction of tumor progression. The aim of the study was to evaluate the clinical utility of salivary metabolites in oral leukoplakia and oral squamous cell carcinoma.

Salivary metabolomic profile of patients diagnosed with oral leukoplakia (n = 21) and oral squamous cell carcinoma (n = 22) was compared with apparently normal controls (n = 18) using Q-TOF-liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry. MassHunter profile software and Metlin database were used for metabolite identification. ANOVA to identify the regulation of metabolites between the three groups, t test (P