Editorial ISSN Online 0719-2479 - www.joralres.com © 2018 276 [Epub ahead of print] Worldwide, head and neck malignancies are the eighth most frequent cause of cancer mortality, and comprises about 8-10% of all cancers. 1 Cancer is a pathological condition in which uncontrollable growth of cells invade and start damaging surrounding tissue. Tese cells are called malignant or cancerous cells. Oral cancer or mouth cancer mainly occurs on the lower lip, inside the mouth, on salivary glands, tonsils, on the back of the throat, on the area behind the third molars (retromolar trigone), esophagus, and on the tongue and soft tissues of the mouth. 2 According to the National Institute of Dental Craniofacial Research (NIDCR), it accounts for around 3% of all malignancies or cancers diagnosed yearly in the United States. Cancer Research UK reported 7800 new cases each year of mouth and oropharyngeal cancer. Te statistics regarding mouth cancer incidence is alarming for the next generation, so early diagnosis by a non-invasive approach is useful for controlling it. Recognition of oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) presently relies on skilled clinical investigation and histological study of suspicious areas, but at sites not easily visibly, it might be go by unnoticeable. 2 Consequently, precise and sensitive biomarkers for oral squamous cell carcinoma might be supportive in early diagnosis of high-risk patients. 3 Human oral fuid consists mainly of saliva produced by the salivary glands, gingival crevicular fuid (GCF), secretions from labial mucosal glands and oropharyngeal glands secretions. 4-6 Te main component of oral fuid is saliva, and it contains much-hidden information of the human health status. Previously our group reported on the importance of human saliva as a diagnostic fuid and how to do the sampling and extraction of salivary proteins. 7,8 Te value of saliva as a means for detection of oral malignancies has been increasing in parallel with recent diagnostic technological advances. 6 Both saliva and blood are the most widely considered body fuids and may provide defnitive biomarkers for early cancer detection. 5 Employing saliva is a non-invasive and cost-efective technique compared to serum analysis and is a useful body fuid comprising a collection of components (DNA, mRNA, protein) which are used as biomarkers for translation, clinical applications, western blot assays, enzyme-linked fuorescence assays and polymerase chain reaction. 9-11 Whole saliva can be collected non-invasively, by the patients themselves with no specialized technique with no requirements of specialized apparatus, and it is also favorable for use in children as it is associated with a higher acceptance rate. Salivary detection tools are of utmost signifcance as it helps in screening, early detection of high-risk groups, patients with previous cancer history as well as patients with pre-malignant lesions and it might Saliva as a Diagnostic Tool in Oral Malignancies. Sadia Minhas 1 & Zohaib Khurshid. 2 Affiliations: 1 Department of Oral Pathology, Akhtar Saeed Medical and Dental Colleges, Lahore, Pakistan. 2 Prosthodontics and Im- plantology, College of Dentistry, King Faisal University, Al-Ahsa 31982, Saudi Arabia. Conflict of interests: None. Acknowledgements: None. Cite as: Minhas S & Khurshid Z. Saliva as a Diagnostic Tool in Oral Malignancies. J Oral Res 2018;7(8):276-277. doi: 10.17126/joralres.2018.071 Corresponding author: Zohaib Khurshid. Prosthodontics and Implantology, College of Dentistry, King Faisal University, Al-Ahsa 31982, Saudi Arabia. Phone: (966) 558420410. E-mail: drzohaibkhurshid@gmail.com