Objective To detect the level of N-α-acetyltransferase 10 (Naa10) in the saliva and serum of patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) and normal adults, and to explore its clinical significance.Methods Using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) to detect the levels of Naa10 in the serum and saliva of OSCC patients and normal adults, the correlation between the level of Naa10 and age, gender, nationality, histological grade, clinical stage and tumor metastasis were analyzed. To evaluate the value of salivary and serum Naa10 in the diagnosis of OSCC by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve.Results The levels of Naa10 in saliva and serum of patients with OSCC were higher than those in normal controls. In both patients with OSCC and normal controls, salivary Naa10 was higher than serum Naa10. Level of Naa10 in serum was correlated with the age of OSCC patients (P<0.05). Level of Naa10 in saliva was correlated with the histological grade of OSCC patients (P<0.05). But there was no statistical difference between the other pathological parameters and Naa10 levels in saliva and serum. The area under the ROC curve of Naa10 in saliva and serum was 0.924 and 0.713. In saliva and serum, the sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of Naa10 were 85.4%, 85.0%, 85.3% and 74.2%, 65.0%, 72.1%.Conclusion Detection of Naa10 levels in saliva and serum is useful in diagnosis of OSCC, and its sensitivity and specificity in saliva are better than those in serum. The level of Naa10 in saliva is related to the degree of differentiation, which may help to determine the degree of malignancy of OSCC.