evaluation of the serum levels of osteopontin in iranian patients with benign and malignant salivary gland tumors

Background: osteopontin (opn) is a phosphorylated glycoprotein involved in a wide variety of biological functions including cancer pathogenesis and metastasis. however, its clinical value in salivary gland tumors (sgts) has received little attention. hence, this study aimed to investigate serum levels of opn in iranian patients with benign and malignant sgts to explore its correlation with the clinicopathologic characteristics of patients.methods: this cross-sectional study was performed on 90 patients with sgts including malignant (n=60) and benign (n=30) cases. sixty age- and sex-matched healthy individuals were also considered as the control group. serum levels of opn in all samples were measured using a commercially available enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (elisa) kit.results: the levels of opn showed significant differences between the patient and control groups (23.16±11.08 ng/ml vs. 10.61±4.99 ng/ml, p<0.0001), as well as between malignant and benign cases of sgts (26.64±11.73 ng/ml vs. 16.19±4.68 ng/ml, p<0.0001). additionally, opn concentration was significantly associated with clinicopathologic characteristics of patients including tumor size, tumor, node and metastasis (tnm) classification, and lymph node involvement, but not with patients' gender, age, size, and type of lesions.conclusion: based on the findings, serum levels of opn could be used as a supportive biomarker to diagnose sgts and differentiate between benign and malignant cases. this is a preliminary study; therefore, further studies with larger sample sizes and longer follow-ups are highly warranted to assess the potential of opn for the diagnosis of sgts at earlier stages.