After the surgery and/or radiotherapy, recurrences or metastases occur in more than 50% of patients (80% of cases within 2 years) and today the overall survival at 5 years of the patients with OSCC is less to 50%. If the OSCC is diagnosed at an early stage, the 5-year survival rises to 80 to 90% and costs of therapeutic services are significantly reduced. Unfortunately, today in the majority of cases the diagnosis is made in advanced stage (3). The development of screening tests and/or diagnostic tests more specific and sensitive result will give a significant improvement.
University of Foggia
The use of saliva as a diagnostic matrix and application of the
(Italy)
potential to meet this demand.
Name of the research project: Research of molecular markers of the oral cavity cancer in biological fluids, such as blood and saliva, for the purpose of early diagnosis and prognosis. Project Leader (Mentor): Dr. Giannatempo Giovanni Description of the project: The squamous cell carcinoma is the most frequent malignant tumor of the oral cavity (1,2). It is the eighth malignancy for the man and is characterized by a low survival rate, mainly due to the advanced stage at diagnosis and to the high frequency of relapses and/or metastases.
latest techniques such as proteomics and genomics have the
Proteomics is particularly suitable for non-invasive investigation of biological fluids such as the urine in renal cancer (RC), as it can identify diseases related to particular changes or specific protein biomarkers in different pathological processes. In recent years there has been a growing interest in saliva as a diagnostic fluid (4,5,6), due to its relatively simple and minimally invasive collection. The collection of saliva may also be the only practical way of doing screening of a large number of patients as it is not invasive, it is easy, inexpensive, convenient and reduces the risk of cross-infection, which characterize the tests on blood/ serum. In this project, we aim to analyze and identify the salivary proteome profile of patients with oral cancer in order to identify specific biomarkers useful for discriminating patients with OSCC from healthy patients.
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In the post-genomic era, the identification of biomarkers can
The project should lead us to identify a revolutionary set of sali-
be made at protein level using proteomics. The pattern of some
vary biomarkers for non-invasive diagnostic OSCC. At the same
expression changes between the biomarkers may be useful for
time, the project may add additional knowledge to carcinogenesis
the early detection of OSCC or identification of patients at high-
pathway, the identification of new genes and related proteins,
est risk of developing metastases or recurrences.
also allowing the identification of a data set of salivary mRNA and
One of the most promising tools for proteomic discoveries
protein, useful for the identification of susceptibility or individual
of new biomarkers is the surface-enhanced laser desorption/
natural history of tumors with more aggressive or metastatic, and
ionization (SELDI) mass spectrometry (MS)-based ProteinChip
certainly for the early detection of oral cancer.
technology.
The study will be endorsed by Dr. Giovanni Giannatempo and the
The great potential of proteomic technologies such as SELDI-
staff of Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine of the
TOF-MS will be critical for the successful completion of the
University of Foggia with the collaboration of Dr. pathologist Lucia
project, and may allow the identification of potential biomarkers M. Gonzalez Lopez in the Hospital General Universitario de Ciudad for cancer OSSC.
Real.
A recent study used the SELDI-TOF to identify possible markers of breast cancer in saliva (7). The study suggested that saliva
What will be the student’s involvement within the research
may be useful for the discovery of early biomarkers of recur-
project?
rence of breast cancer. Considering studies on proteomic pro-
Students will help for selecting patients and analizing saliva
files of Hu et al. (8), Huang (9), and Vitorino et al. (10) using 2D
samples acquired from them.
gels and mass spectrometry that showed the presence of 309 salivary proteins in whole saliva, the use of SELDI can potentially What practical skills and knowledge would the student be used to restrict the profile of the spectrum to identify protein biomarker significant suitable for further validation (7). This can facilitate the process of exploration of the salivary biomarkers. This project will employ the latest technologies at the time to undertake a systematic determination of the profile of the expression pattern of proteins in patients with OSCC in order to
acquire during the research project? Skills and knowledge about the using of special machine “Seldi Tof” that is present in italy only in the Department of Sperimental and clinical Medicine - University of Foggia Improvement on the knowledge of genomic and pro-
identify novel biomarkers in saliva for the development of highly teomics, on variations in presence of cancerous and pre productive screening that will be useful for diagnostic purposes trials (11).
cancerous lesions. Explore, Discover, Improve
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Is there any special knowledge, skills or certain level of studies required?
Available months: October, November, December Students to be accepted: 6 - 10
Successful examination of oral pathology and pathological anatomy, and in the case of medical students, also have passed the examination of Dentistry
Contact:
Language(s) of use: Italian / english /spanish
Victor Luca Palumbo
Minimum number of weeks to participate: 4 weeks
IADS National Scientific Officer
Hours of work per day: 6
email address: victorspalumbo@gmail.com
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Selection Process
Logistics
The students have to submit the complete applica-
- The Program/network consists of Universities offer-
tion to the IADS National/Local Scientific Officers or
ing dental research internships to international stu-
the Project Leader (Mentor). The University receives
dents who are rigurously selected by the University.
the applications and has the option to select the students who better fit the scientific project.
- A team of IADS National/Local Scientific Officers are in charge of successfully implementing and assuring
a) A complete application consists of:
the continuity of the Program.
1) Curriculum Vitae in English
- The Universities have the full right of selecting the
2) A letter of intent ( a short description of the scien-
students who better fit the dental research internship
tific activities should be attached) 3) Two letters of recommendation
- The student is involved in a dental research intern-
4) Copies of Medical Certificates and Awards.
ship for a period of time ranging from 2 to 8 weeks, and at the completion of the internship it is granted
The application materials should be written or trans-
with a Certificate of Participation in the IDRP research
lated in English.
internship. Explore, Discover, Improve