Abstract

Past two decades have seen a tremendous bloom in cancer research, especially considering the biomarkers. Cancer related biomarkers have indeed opened new horizons in the areas of cancer diagnosis, care, therapeutics and prognosis. Oncoviruses and their role in various oral cancers have also been an intensive area of qualitative research. This paper reviews the researches and patents relating to Cytomegalovirus (CMV) as a salivary gland oncovirus. Though the extensive history of its correlation with infectious diseases of salivary glands is well known, its correlation with salivary gland oncogenesis is apparently a new arena of research. This review is an attempt to gather correlations between CMV and salivary gland tumorigenesis. The data were collected using keywords like cytomegalovirus, salivary gland tumors, salivary gland malignancy, patents, biomarkers and oncoviruses through scientific database systems like pubmed, medline, science direct, cochrane library and google scholar. The data published in English language, only for the duration of 1976-2014 were included. The data from other languages and out of the mentioned duration were excluded. Also the search was restricted to patents related to CMV and its association with salivary gland malignancy. Articles related to CMV causing pathologies other than salivary gland pathology were strictly excluded. The authors believe that an inclusive understanding of the biomarkers related to CMV, might help diagnose salivary gland tumors, in addition to opening new vistas of multiple therapeutic alternatives for patient benefit.

Keywords: Biomarkers, cytomegalovirus, oncoviruses, patents, salivary gland tumors, salivary gland malignancy.