Saliva Diagnostics for Infectious Disease and Cancer

Saliva serves as a reservoir for the upper aerodigestive tract (UADT). Saliva collection is non-invasive, convenient, and amenable to self-collection. Thus, saliva is an ideal resource for liquid biopsy of cancers or infectious diseases derived from UADT. Cancers arising from UADT include head and neck, esophagus, and lung cancers, which, in combination, have the highest rate of incidence and mortality among all cancers. Detection of respiratory infection, particularly viral infection, is the most common lab test in clinic. In this talk, we will focus on our proprietary inventions of saliva-based tests for head and neck cancer, i.e., HNKlearTM, and SARS-CoV-2, i.e., CovidFASTTM, two best examples to demonstrate the value of saliva diagnostics for cancers and infectious diseases from both clinical development and real-world experience.

Learning Objectives:

1. Advantages of using saliva in clinical tests for cancers and infectious diseases derived from the upper aerodigestive tract.

2. HNKlear, a saliva-based test for head and neck cancer, from invention to clinical application.

3. CovidFAST, an RNA extraction-free method for SARS-CoV-2 using either saliva (SalivaFAST) or swab (SwabFAST), serves as a powerhouse for COVID Check Colorado.