If oral cancer is detected early, there is an 80 to 90% chance for survival. Currently, the early detection of oral cancer depends on a thorough oral examination by a dentist or other qualified health care provider. However, scientists are working on simpler, quicker and more accurate methods for detecting oral cancer in the early stages. Saliva has recently been shown to harbour highly informative biomarkers for oral cancer detection.

Scientists in Dr David Wong's laboratory at the School of Dentistry at UCLA have discovered that seven RNAs, when found in saliva, are very useful for oral cancer detection. The saliva oral cancer RNA signature has been tested in over 300 saliva samples from oral cancer patients and healthy people, and the signature is always present in higher levels in the saliva of oral cancer patients than in saliva from healthy people, with an overall accuracy rate of about 85%. The next important step is to turn these scientific findings into clinical tests that can be used for early oral cancer detection. At the recent 35th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Dental Research, Wong's research team reported for the first time that they have developed a standardised saliva RNA test for oral cancer ready for clinical usage.

The Saliva RNA Test has been tested in 100 oral cancer and healthy people, and it has been confirmed that four saliva oral cancer RNA biomarkers are highly accurate in detecting oral cancer, at around 82%. This is the first standardised saliva-based test for clinical oral cancer detection and will have enormous clinical value in reducing the mortality and morbidity for oral cancer patients, as well as improving their quality of life.