ArticleBritish journal of cancer2026
Diagnostic accuracy of combinatorial mRNA biomarkers for non-invasive detection and therapy monitoring of oral and oropharyngeal SCC.
Article in British journal of cancer, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
12 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundOral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is increasingly common, with over 380,000 new cases annually. Despite its high incidence (6.0 per 100,000 males; 2.3 per 100,000 females) and poor prognosis, no molecular biomarkers exist for early detection. Non-invasive sampling could improve diagnosis and patient outcomes.
methodsThis pilot study used RNA sequencing to identify significantly upregulated mRNA targets in swab samples from oral and oropharyngeal SCC patients and healthy probands. After filtering, four potential biomarkers were further validated in 79 samples using RT-qPCR. CombiROC analysis assessed diagnostic performance. Additional RT-qPCR on tumour and normal tissues and fluorescence staining in FFPE tumour sections evaluated expression at mRNA and protein levels.
resultsA panel of three markers (c-JUN, SFN, HSP90AB1) showed high diagnostic accuracy: 92.3% specificity, 92.3% sensitivity, and AUC of 0.91. Fluorescence staining confirmed significantly higher protein expression in tumour tissues, supporting RNA findings. The panel showed stronger diagnostic performance in men than in women.
conclusionThis study presents a promising non-invasive biomarker panel for oral and oropharyngeal SCC detection. Further validation in larger cohorts is needed to confirm diagnostic value and clarify sex specificity. The approach is adaptable to other tumour types and sample materials, supporting molecular diagnostics. The workflow shows all project steps from sampling to marker localisation in FFPE tissue. In the discovery phase, RNA sequencing was used to find potential mRNA markers in swab samples. Via strict filtering, markers for RT-qPCR were selected and verified in a bigger cohort in the validation phase. Selected markers were then used to do combinatorial analysis to improve the specificity and sensitivity compared to that of the single markers. Finally, markers were verified and localised in primary oral and oropharyngeal SCC FFPE tissue. Created with BioRender.com.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.