2017 · Journal of community genetics · open access
Evaluation of cortisol and telomere length measurements in ethnically diverse women with breast cancer using culturally sensitive methods
Ramirez et al.
The finding, in our words
Self-collection of saliva and hair specimens from ethnically diverse breast cancer survivors proved feasible, with samples remaining stable during shipment and storage. Hair cortisol measured by ELISA showed acceptable variability (16% coefficient of variation), supporting decentralised capture of chronic stress biomarkers in oncology cohorts without clinic visits.
A paraphrase to the Library’s standard, never the abstract. The source is one link away and is always the authority.
Profiling EBV DNA methylation in self-collected saliva distinguished nasopharyngeal carcinoma from controls with 90% sensitivity and 100% specificity by capture sequencing; a q-PCR assay targeting one CpG site achieved 78% sensitivity and 100% specificity. The methylation density fell after therapy and rose with recurrence, confirming that decentralised salivary screening can support both diagnosis and disease monitoring.
Zheng et al., International journal of cancer (paywalled) · source ↗
This study used home self-collected saliva samples to successfully monitor cytokines and cortisol in mothers and infants, finding that a community singing intervention significantly reduced salivary interleukin-6 levels in mothers with postnatal depression.
Kirkpatrick et al., Brain, behavior, and immunity (paywalled) · source ↗
This study found that salivary 11-dehydrodexamethasone correlates strongly with serum dexamethasone, unlike salivary dexamethasone which shows poor agreement. This validation suggests patients could self-collect saliva samples at home to verify dexamethasone absorption for the overnight suppression test.
Marshall et al., The Journal of clinical endocrinology and metabolism (paywalled) · source ↗
This study validated a lateral flow fluorescence assay using quantum dots for saliva and europium nanoparticles for serum to detect cortisol within physiological ranges. The test operates in 15 minutes with a handheld reader, supporting point-of-care and at-home monitoring without a cold chain.
Bruno et al., Journal of fluorescence (paywalled) · source ↗
Among 101 working-age women in Chicago, 70% returned at-home kits for capillary blood and saliva collection, demonstrating that patient-centric microsampling of stress biomarkers (cortisol and CRP) is feasible in diverse urban populations. This supports decentralised diagnostics for population health research.