Sir, salivary biomarkers have been identified in different tumours distant to the oral cavity including brain, pancreatic, breast, ovarian, lung, gastric, prostate, and oesophageal cancer.1 Saliva therefore represents a potential source of tumour markers (proteins, metabolites, mRNA, micro-RNA and microbial) but the development of this as an effective diagnostic modality requires further research. Because carcinogenesis is a complex process, it is necessary to know the molecular changes in primary tumour initiation, promotion and progression with a double objective: to detect early disease and to improve clinical management. For this, saliva could be a potential biofluid showing the heterogenecity of the tumour at different stages of the disease compared to tumour tissue and plasma. Research efforts should be directed to assess the diagnostic capacity of the different salivary tumour biomarkers as well as its biological function on the pathogenesis and progression of the disease. This will require the participation of different researchers (medical, dental, biologists, bioinformaticians, statisticians, engineers etc) and it is a matter of urgency to train such researchers and convince institutions about this excellent opportunity to finance projects in this field. New perspectives must be directed towards finding specific salivary biomarkers in cancer, with the aim of improving the diagnosis, prognosis and monitoring disease.