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Updated: Feb 7, 2026

Porcine As a Training Module for Head and Neck Microvascular Reconstruction
Published on: September 29, 2018
A pilot study to profile salivary angiogenic factors to detect head and neck cancers
L van der Merwe1,2, Y Wan1, H J Cheong1
1The School of Biomedical Sciences, Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovations, Queensland University of Technology, 60 Musk Avenue, GPO Box 2434, Kelvin Grove, Brisbane, QLD, 4059, Australia.
Background:
Early diagnosis of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCCs) is an appealing way to increase survival rates in these patients as well as to improve quality of life post-surgery. Angiogenesis is a hallmark of tumor initiation and progression. We have investigated a panel of angiogenic factors in saliva samples collected from HNSCC patients and controls using the Bio-Plex ProTM assays.
Methods:
We have identified a panel of five angiogenic proteins (sEGFR, HGF, sHER2, sIL-6Ra and PECAM-1) to be elevated in the saliva samples collected from HNSCC patients (n = 58) compared to a control cohort (n = 8 smokers and n = 30 non-smokers).
Results:
High positive correlations were observed between the following sets of salivary proteins; sEGFR:sHER2, sEGFR:HGF, sEGFR:sIL-6Rα, sHER2:HGF and sHER2:sIL6Ra. A moderate positive correlation was seen between FGF-basic and sEGFR.
Conclusion:
We have shown that angiogenic factor levels in saliva can be used as a potential diagnostic biomarker panel in HNSCC.
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