A study to estimate the serum IgA and salivary IgA levels in patients with oral leukoplakia and oral squamous cell carcinoma

CONTEXT: The increasing death rate because of oral cancer is mainly due to its late diagnosis. Tumour markers are often detected in abnormal amounts in blood, urine or saliva of patients with certain types of cancer. Diagnosing cancer through human saliva has advantages such as low invasiveness, minimum cost and easy sample collection. We have used serum immunoglobulin A (IgA) and salivary IgA for our present study. AIMS: The aim of present study was to estimate serum and salivary IgA levels in oral leukoplakia and oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) patients. SETTINGS AND DESIGN: The study included 40 patients; 10 in the control group, 15 cases with oral leukoplakia and 15 cases with OSCC. METHODS AND MATERIAL: The blood samples and saliva were taken from clinically diagnosed oral leukoplakia and OSCC patients and were tested for IgA levels. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS USED: The data were analysed using SPSS 16.0. The mean values were compared between the groups by using analysis of variance (ANOVA) followed by post-hoc test for group-wise comparison. P value ≤ 0.05 was considered significant. RESULTS: It was observed that the comparison of levels of serum IgA in control and leukoplakia group; control and OSCC group; leukoplakia and OSCC group were found to be statistically significant. Also, comparison between the levels of salivary IgA in control and OSCC group was found to be statistically significant. CONCLUSION: It is suggested that the serum and salivary IgA levels could be a better adjuvant diagnostic marker along with routine markers in patients with premalignant and malignant lesions.