Reliability assessment of soluble c-erb B-2 concentrations in the saliva of healthy women and men

Abstract Background: The protein c- erb B-2, also known as Her2/ neu , is a prognostic breast cancer marker assayed in tissue biopsy specimens from women diagnosed with malignant tumors. Current studies suggest that soluble fragments of the c- erb B-2 oncogene may be released from the cell surface and become detectable in patients with a carcinoma of the breast. Consequently, the purpose of this study is to assay soluble c- erb B-2 protein in the saliva of healthy men and women to determine the reliability of the assay. Methods: To determine the diagnostic utility of this oncogene, we assayed the soluble form of the c- erb B-2 protein in the saliva with an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The study population consisted of 10 healthy women and 9 healthy men who were serially sampled for saliva 3 times a day for a 5-day period. Saliva was collected from each subject at 9 AM , 4 PM , and 9 PM during the 5-day period. Results: We found the presence of c- erb B-2 protein in the saliva of both groups of subjects. The salivary levels of c- erb B-2 were not significantly different when compared for gender differences. Likewise, the results suggest that sampling during various times of the day for salivary c- erb B-2 levels has no effect on marker concentration. Reliability analyses showed that supervised salivary collections were more reliable than unsupervised collections. Conclusions: The results of this pilot study suggest that the assay for salivary c- erb B-2 protein is reliable and might have potential use in the initial detection and follow-up screening for the recurrence of breast cancer in both men and women. (Oral Surg Oral Med Oral Pathol Oral Radiol Endod 2001;91:174-9)