NEW METHOD TO TEST FOR ORAL CANCER

But a team of researchers, led by a clinician scientist at the Case Western Reserve University School of Dental Medicine, has discovered a noninvasive, low-cost test to detect oral cancer, monitor precancerous lesions and determine when a biopsy is warranted.

Their findings, published online March 4 in the journal Cell Reports Medicine, are based on a scoring system linked to the levels of two proteins in cells brushed from suspicious oral lesions of patients at dental clinics or the ear, nose and throat department at University Hospitals (UH).

One of the proteins (human beta defensin 3 or hBD-3) is expressed at high levels in early-stage oral cancer, while the second (hBD-2) is low or unchanged.

The ratio of hBD-3 to hBD-2 in the lesion site -- over the ratio of the two proteins on the opposite, normal site -- generates a score, called the beta defensin index (BDI).

A score above a predetermined threshold implies cancer; anything below does not. Determining the levels of the proteins and quantifying the BDI is done routinely in a lab.