United States: Periodontal bacteria, which causes gum disease, can also increase a person’s chance of getting head and neck cancers, a study also shows.More than a dozen bacterial species increase head and neck cancer risk by 50 percent, reports study.
As reported by the HealthDay, the study authors’ recommendations for maintaining proper oral hygiene practices provide still one more reason to do so, said co-senior author Dr Richard Hayes, professor of population health at NYU School of Medicine in the New York City. “Periodontal disease can allegedly be thwarted by tooth brushing and flossing periodontal disease and head and neck cancer.”
Some of these microbes have been observed to cause severe gum diseases and they are known to spread to the jawbone and other connective tissues surrounding teeth, according to researchers.
To conduct the study, the investigators pooled data from three ongoing cohort studies that have followed close to 160000 Americans from multiple sites across the nation, all of whom were enrolled in prospective investigations of cancer risk factors.
All the participants gave saliva that demonstrated the number and kind of bacteria existing in the participant’s mouth.
For this purpose, the people were followed for 10 to 15 years, to capture the evolution of any cancers. It identified 236 head and neck cancer patients during that period.
The study authors matched the mouth microbes of the head and neck cancer patients to another 458 people, cancer-free.
All together thirteen bacterial species, a number of them increased the head and neck cancer risk and decreased it in the other, the overall average raised risk was 30%, the studies reveal.
When combined with five other bacterial species commonly found in gum disease, the risk rose by 50%, according to the researchers from the study published September 26 in JAMA Oncology.
Our findings offer new insight into the relationship between the oral microbiome and the head and neck cancers said the lead researcher Soyoung Kwak, a postdoctoral fellow with the NYU School of Medicine’s Department of the Population Health and these bacteria may serve as biomarkers for the experts to flag those at the high risk.
The study found no increased risk of the cancer from naturally occurring fungi in the mouth researchers noted.