Background and aim: oral cancer is one of the most common cancers of the head and neck. Considering the high prevalence and mortality percentage of oral cancer and the significant advances in immunology and identification of different cytokines, the aim of the present study was to compare the concentration of IL₈ in saliva of patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) and healthy subjects.

Materials and methods: in this case-control study, 20 individuals with a definite histopathology diagnosis of OSCC were selected as the case group and 20 healthy subjects were selected as the control group. The two groups were matched according to age, gender, cigarette smoking and alcohol consumption, medication consumption, periodontal disease (average CAL in first molars) and absence of systemic diseases. 5 ml of unstimulated whole saliva sample was collected with spitting method from each subject and the concentrations of salivary IL₈ were compared between the two groups. Linear regression and t-test were used for statistical analysis.

Results: the concentration of IL₈ equaled 741.82±722.81 pg/ml in the case group and 341.25±313.52 pg/ml in the control group and Mann-U-Whitney test showed that the concentration of IL₈ in patients with OSCC is higher than that in the control subjects and this difference is significant. (p=0.049) According to regression equation, IL₈ has a significant correlation with tumor size index (T). (p=0.011)

Conclusion: the results of this study showed that the concentrations of salivary IL₈ were significantly different between the patients with OSCC and healthy subjects (p=0.049) and the concentration of IL₈ has a significant correlation with tumor size (T).