Elevated levels of three bacteria in saliva indicate the presence of oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC), according to an article in the July 7 issue of Journal of Translational Medicine.
Researchers at The Forsyth Institute in Boston compared bacterial samples from the saliva of 229 healthy subjects with samples from 45 patients who had been diagnosed with oral cancer. The team found elevated levels of Capnocytophaga gingivalis, Prevotella melaninogenica and Streptococcus mitis in the samples from the patients with oral cancer. They obtained similar findings when they controlled for sex, age and smoking history.
"Those results led us to hypothesize that the three species could serve as diagnostic indicators for OSCC," said principal investigator Dr. Donna Mager, assistant member of the staff in Forsyth’s Department of Periodontology and Molecular Genetics. "In fact, we found that elevated salivary counts of the three bacteria correctly identified 80 percent of individuals with oral cancer and 83 percent of controls."
The team is planning on conducting more research to reproduce their results and evaluate how well saliva tests predict the progression of precancerous conditions toward oral cancer. The team also plans to study the relationship of oral bacteria to a variety of cancers and diseases.
The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research and was conducted in collaboration with the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, and Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston.
