A faculty member of the Faculty of Medicine, Public Health, and Nursing, Universitas Gadjah Mada (FK-KMK UGM) and an otolaryngology-head and neck surgery specialist at the UGM Academic Hospital (RSA UGM), Anton Sony Wibowo, successfully earned his doctoral degree through an open defense held at FK-KMK UGM on Monday (Nov. 10). Defending his dissertation titled “Expression of PTEN and EBER mRNA in Saliva as Potential Biomarkers for Detecting Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma”, Dr. Wibowo was declared to have passed with Cum Laude predicate.
In his dissertation, he explains that nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is a malignancy with unique epidemiological characteristics and widely varying incidence. This cancer contributes significantly to morbidity and mortality in Indonesia, while globally, the number of NPC cases reached 176,500 in 2019.
“Indonesia ranks third among countries with the highest mortality from nasopharyngeal carcinoma, recording 3,220 deaths in 2019,” he said.
Dr. Wibowo notes that detecting carcinoma is challenging, as the diagnostic process requires invasive and complex procedures. In many cases, he added, patients are only diagnosed once the disease has reached an advanced stage, resulting in suboptimal treatment outcomes.
“Through this research, the dissertation offers the use of saliva for biomarker analysis to help predict early-stage diagnosis. Saliva is one of the body’s fluids that contains genetic material such as RNA, which can be used to detect carcinoma. It presents a promising non-invasive and simple method for cancer detection. The PTEN and EBER markers found in saliva have potential for nasopharyngeal carcinoma screening,” he explained.
Accompanied by his co-promoters, Dr. Sagung Rai Indrasari and Dr. Camelia Herdini, Dr. Wibowo revealed that his study found that the relative expression of PTEN and EBER in saliva samples was significantly associated with nasopharyngeal carcinoma. Statistical analysis showed that age and sex did not have significant effects.
“Lower PTEN expression significantly reduces the likelihood of developing nasopharyngeal carcinoma, while higher EBER expression significantly increases its risk,” he noted.
At the end of the defense, Dr. Wibowo acknowledged several limitations in his research, including uneven distribution across clinical stages. He added that the head and neck carcinoma cases used as comparisons also showed considerable diagnostic variation.
“The examination of mRNA expression in saliva for early detection and screening remains limited to specialized laboratories and is not yet widely accessible to the public. Further studies are therefore needed in the future,” he said.
Author: Jelita Agustine
Editor: Agung Nugroho
Post-editor: Rajendra Arya