Joe Moffett wishes the spit test was available four years ago, before the tumor near the base of his tongue put him through months of radiation treatments, chemotherapy and surgery -- plus the hassle of taking nourishment through a feeding tube inserted at Johns Hopkins Hospital.
"Having a test out there, I could have avoided a whole lot. But still, I thank the good Lord I'm alive, and I'm excited about this test. It could help a lot of people," said Moffett, 69, a retired Army pilot from Dillon, S.C.
Researchers at Hopkins published findings this month showing they are close to developing a mouth rinse that can detect head and neck cancer such as Moffett's.
The approach is based on a premise -- gaining wide recognition among medical researchers -- that much of our biological profile is contained in our saliva.
"When you swish and spit, you shed an enormous amount of DNA," said Dr. Joseph A. Califano, the head and neck surgeon developing the saliva test at Hopkins' Kimmel Cancer Center.
Califano has been trying to design a DNA-based saliva test for head and neck cancer for at least five years. At stake, he says, is earlier detection for the seventh-most-common cancer in the United States.
An estimated 45,000 people are diagnosed with head and neck cancer each year, and 12,000 die from it annually, according to the American Cancer Society.
Head and neck cancer usually begins in the moist tissues that line the mouth, nose and throat, and includes cancers that afflict the mouth, nose, sinuses, salivary glands, throat and lymph nodes in the neck.
A biopsy will determine if someone has cancer. But patients often don't consult a physician until it's too late because the symptoms -- a lump on the neck, a hoarse voice, a sore neck or a persistent sore throat -- can often be attributed to other ailments.
"It's a silent cancer. It can be in an area you can't see, so we should be looking for other approaches to diagnose it," said Dr. Len Lichtenfeld, deputy medical officer of the American Cancer Society.
Moffett's only symptom was an inch-long lump, spotted by his wife, on the left side of his neck. "My wife touched my throat and said, `You have a knot there,'" he recalled.
Early detection can save 90 percent of those diagnosed, but the survival rate in cases of a late-stage diagnosis slips to 30 percent, experts say.
"Sometimes, we don't detect it until the symptoms have progressed pretty far, and by then it's just too late," Califano said.
