Finding a needle in a haystack: A new technology is demonstrated to enrich circulating tumor cells (CTCs) with high efficiency by integrating an antibody‐coated silicon nanopillar (SiNP, see picture; gray) substrate with an overlaid polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) microfluidic chaotic mixer (turquoise). It shows significantly improved sensitivity in detecting rare CTCs from whole blood, thus providing an alternative for monitoring cancer progression.

Background Oral cancer is the sixth most common cancer with a five-year survival rate of approximately 60%. Presently there are no scientifically credible early detection techniques beyond conventional clinical oral examination. The goal of this study is to validate if the 7 mRNAs and 3 proteins previously reported biomarkers are capable of discriminating patients with oral squamous cell carcinomas (OSCC) from healthy subjects in independent cohorts and by a National Cancer Institute (NCI)- Early Detection Research Network (EDRN) Biomarker Reference Laboratory (BRL). Methods 395 subjects from 5 independent cohorts based on case-controlled design were investigated by 2 independent laboratories, UCLA discovery laboratory and NCI-EDRN Biomarker Reference Laboratory (BRL). Results Expression of all 7 mRNA and 3 protein markers was increased in OSCC versus controls in all 5 cohorts. With respect to individual marker performance across the 5 cohorts, the increase in IL-8 and SAT were statistically significant and remained top performers across different cohorts in terms of sensitivity and specificity. A previously identified multiple marker model demonstrated an area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC)-curve for prediction of OSCC status ranging from of 0.74 to 0.86 across the cohorts. Conclusions The validation of these biomarkers demonstrated their feasibility in the discrimination of OSCC from healthy controls. Established assay technologies are robust enough to perform independently. Individual cutoff values for each of these markers and for the combined predictive model need to be further defined in large clinical studies. Impact Salivary proteomic and transcriptomic biomarkers can discriminate oral cancer from control subjects.

Nadel im Heuhaufen: Eine neue Technik ermöglicht es, zirkulierende Tumorzellen (CTCs) mit hoher Effizienz anzureichern, indem ein Substrat aus Antikörper‐beschichteten Silicium‐Nanosäulen (SiNP, siehe Bild; grau) mit einer chaotisch durchmischenden Mikrofluidikeinheit (türkis) aus Polydimethylsiloxan (PDMS) bedeckt wird. Das Verfahren detektiert empfindlich seltene CTCs aus Vollblut und bietet damit eine Alternative für die Überwachung der Krebsprogression.

BACKGROUND: Current standard operating procedures for salivary transcriptomic analysis require low temperatures and lengthy mRNA isolation, which substantially hamper its use in the clinic. We developed a streamlined, ambient-temperature processing, stabilization, and storage protocol for clinical analysis of salivary RNA.