Abstract
Aim. To evaluate salivary oxidant-antioxidant levels in patients with different clinicopathological stages of oral cancer. Materials and methods. A case control study was conducted on 40 patients with oral cancer. Age- and gender-matched subjects were taken as control. Unstimulated whole saliva supernatant was collected. Estimation of lipid peroxidation, nitrates and antioxidants like uric acid and glutathione s-transferase was done with a spectrophotometer. Data is expressed as mean +/- SD. Inferential statistical was done by using independent t-test and One Way ANOVA with post-hoc analysis. Correlation analysis was performed with salivary parameters and baseline variables. Results and discussion. Lipid peroxidation end products and nitrates recorded elevated values in cancer patients, whereas the antioxidants enzymes are depleted. There is a remarkable positive correlation between oxidants and the advancing stages and grades of disease. Conclusions. Oxidative and nitrative markers in saliva have a strong potential to be used as prognostic markers for oral cancer.