Fluorescence from human oral cavity and body fluid saliva for detection of oral precancer: A comparison

We report here a comparative study for oral precancer detection using fluorescence spectroscopy on human oral cavity and body fluid saliva. In-vivo detection of oral precancer has been carried out by an in-house developed handheld system and detection on human saliva has been performed by in-house developed compact set-up. The Study has been conducted on three groups of patients: oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC), dysplastic (precancer), and control (normal). Fluorescence spectra recorded from oral buccal mucosa (BM) consist of major and minor bands of flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD) and porphyrins near 500, 634, 689 and 703 nm. Spectra recorded from human saliva also showed the same bands in addition to a new band near 437 nm. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis has been used to evaluate diagnostic performance. Ratios of the peak values of intensities of porphyrin (634 nm) to FAD (500 nm) bands from the spectra of BM and area under the entire spectra of saliva samples are taken as discriminating parameters to differentiate the groups. Obtained results with human saliva are found to be similar as from BM and we conclude that it may be used as a substitute diagnostic medium of early oral cancer detection.