Objective To find suitable biomarkers for diagnosis of Breast cancer in serum and saliva; also, to examine the correlation between salivary and serum concentrations of suitable biomarkers. Methods This case-control study included 30 women with breast cancer as a case group and 30 healthy women as a matched control group. Blood and saliva specimens were collected from all participants. We evaluated serum and salivary cancer antigen 15-3 (CA15-3), carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), estradiol, vaspin, and obestatin concentrations. Mann-Whitney U testing and Spearman correlation coefficients were used for statistical analysis. Results Serum and salivary concentrations of estradiol were significantly higher in patients with breast cancer (BC) than in healthy women (P < .05). Also, serum CEA and salivary obestatin concentrations were significantly higher in BC patients than in the control group (P < .05). However, there was no significant difference between other parameters in patients with BC and controls. We observed a positive correlation between serum and salivary concentrations of CA15-3, as well as a negative correlation between serum and salivary concentrations of vaspin and obestatin. Conclusion The results of this study demonstrated that concentrations of CEA and estradiol in serum, obestatin in serum and saliva, and estradiol in saliva were significantly different between the 2 groups.

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Bone metastases is one of the most common causes of pain in cancer patients and have a significant effect on their quality of life. The most common symptom of bone metastases is pain that gradually develops. Morphine is used to relieve pain in these patients, poorly accepted by patients due to its adverse events. Therefore, the current study was aimed to compare the effect of sublingual buprenorphine, with certainly lower complications with morphine. Fourth patients were divided into 2 groups. In group A, metastatic cancer patients received 2.5 mg of intravenous (IV) morphine. Furthermore, in group B, sublingual tablet of buprenorphine (one-fourth of a 500 μg tablet) was administered sublingually. Pain was measured 15, 30, and 45 minutes after the onset of pain using visual analog scale (VAS) Ruler. Based on the obtained data, two groups A and B were compared using SPSS 23 software. There was a significant difference between the patient's pain intensity after 15 and 30 minutes from the onset of pain in both groups. Due to the fact that the duration of the effect of morphine is 3-4 hours and the duration of the effect of sublingual buprenorphine is 6-8 hours, therefore, morphine showed fast acting forms of opioids (P= 0.001). The required dose level on the first day was similar in both groups and there was no statistically significant difference between the two groups. While on the second and third days, the median dose in group A (morphine) was greater than group B (buprenorphine), indicating prolonged duration of action for buprenorphine compared with morphine, thus requiring a lower subsequent doses. The results of this study suggested that sublingual buprenorphine is a higher effective drug compared to intravenous morphine during after operation. With regard to easy and painless administration, it seems that its use can be useful in controlling pain due to bone metastases in cancer patients.