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The tumor marker CA 15-3 is one of the most import reliable for metastatic breast cancer monitoring. While it is generally assessed in serum of patients, blood sampling is an invasive method compared to saliva sampling which is simple and could be an alternative to blood according to many studies. The aim of this investigation was to assess the relationship between serum and salivary concentrations of the protein CA 15-3 in patients with breast cancer and healthy asymptomatic volunteers. A case-control study was conducted with 60 women: 29 breast cancer patients from the Maternity Hospital Souissi Rabat (Morocco) and 31 healthy asymptomatic women. The CA 15-3 concentrations in saliva and serum samples were assessed using an enzyme immune assay (EIA kits) and comparison between cases and controls was made by the Mann-Whitney test. The correlation between serum and saliva CA 15-3 concentration was tested using Pearson correlation. The comparison result of CA15-3 concentration in saliva and serum level in cases and controls was not statistically significant (p>0.05). However, the correlation between salivary and serum CA 15-3 concentration was positive and statistically significant (r=0.27, p=0.03). In conclusion, the positive correlation between salivary and serum expression found in our study suggests that saliva could be an alternative to blood sampling to help breast cancer monitoring.

BackgroundThe aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between salivary concentration of the soluble fragment of the HER2 (human epidermal growth factor receptor) protein and its status in mammary tissues.MethodsThis case-control study was done in 27 breast cancer patients with no visible metastatic disease treated at the gynecology service, Maternity Souissi Hospital, Rabat, Morocco. Two groups were selected, ie, patients with positive and negative HER2 status in mammary tissue. The salivary HER2 protein concentration was assessed by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The salivary HER2 concentration was compared between the HER2-positive and HER2-negative groups using the Mann-Whitney U test. A P-value <0.05 was considered to be statistically significant.ResultsNo statistically significant difference in salivary HER2 protein expression was found between the case and control groups. There was also no significant difference in clinical characteristics according to positive and negative HER2 status (P>0.05), except for the progesterone hormone receptor which was statistically significant in both the case and control groups (P=0.047).ConclusionAccording to our data, salivary expression of the HER2 receptor may not be a reliable alternative to tissue assessment.

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