Serum Advanced Oxidation Protein Products in Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma: Possible Markers of Diagnostic Significance

Background: the aim of this study was to measure the concentrations (levels) ofserum total proteins and advanced oxidation protein products as markers of oxidantmediated protein damage in the sera of patients with oral cancers.methods: the study consisted of the sera analyses of serum total protein andadvanced oxidation protein products’ levels in 30 age and sex matched controls, 60patients with reported pre-cancerous lesions and/or conditions and 60 patients withhistologically proven oral squamous cell carcinoma. one way analyses of variance wereused to test the difference between groups. to determine which of the two groups’ meanswere significantly different, the post-hoc test of bonferroni was used. the results wereaveraged as mean ± standard deviation. in the above test, p values less than 0.05 weretaken to be statistically significant. the normality of data was checked before thestatistical analysis was performed.results: the study revealed statistically significant variations in serum levels ofadvanced oxidation protein products (p < 0.001). serum levels of total protein showedextensive variations; therefore the results were largely inconclusive and statisticallyinsignificant.conclusion: the results emphasize the need for more studies with larger samplesizes to be conducted before a conclusive role can be determined for sera levels of totalprotein and advanced oxidation protein products as markers both for diagnosticsignificance and the transition from the various oral pre-cancerous lesions and conditionsinto frank oral cancers.