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.

A B S T R A C T PurposeWe have implemented a high throughput platform for quantitative analysis of serum autoantibodies, which we have applied to lung cancer for discovery of novel antigens and for validation in prediagnostic sera of autoantibodies to antigens previously defined based on analysis of sera collected at the time of diagnosis. Materials and MethodsProteins from human lung adenocarcinoma cell line A549 lysates were subjected to extensive fractionation. The resulting 1,824 fractions were spotted in duplicate on nitrocellulose-coated slides. The microarrays produced were used in a blinded validation study to determine whether annexin I, PGP9.5, and 14-3-3 theta antigens previously found to be targets of autoantibodies in newly diagnosed patients with lung cancer are associated with autoantibodies in sera collected at the presymptomatic stage and to determine whether additional antigens may be identified in prediagnostic sera. Individual sera collected from 85 patients within 1 year before a diagnosis of lung cancer and 85 matched controls from the Carotene and Retinol Efficacy Trial (CARET) cohort were hybridized to individual microarrays. ResultsWe present evidence for the occurrence in lung cancer sera of autoantibodies to annexin I, 14-3-3 theta, and a novel lung cancer antigen, LAMR1, which precede onset of symptoms and diagnosis. ConclusionOur findings suggest potential utility of an approach to diagnosis of lung cancer before onset of symptoms that includes screening for autoantibodies to defined antigens.