Oral microbiome ‘has the potential’ to be a noninvasive biomarker for gastric cancer
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Key takeaways:
- Notable differences were reported in the oral microbiome of patients with gastric cancer vs. controls.
- Similar differences were reported between patients with precancerous conditions and controls.
Oral samples taken from patients with gastric cancer and premalignant gastric conditions exhibited “stark differences” in bacterial composition compared with controls, suggesting that oral bacteria could serve as a biomarker.
“In the United States, there are no formal screening guidelines for gastric cancer and more than half of patients with gastric cancer did not receive a diagnosis until their cancer is already at an advanced stage,” Shruthi Reddy Perati, MD, a general surgery resident at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, said during the Digestive Disease Week media briefing. “As a result, far too many patients are being diagnosed too late.”
She continued, “Our research explored whether a simple oral mouthwash sample has the potential to play a role in early detection and screening for gastric cancer. We aimed to identify oral microbiome differences associated with gastric cancer and premalignant gastric conditions compared to controls.”
Researchers analyzed “swish-and-spit” oral samples from 98 patients, including 30 with known gastric cancer, 30 with premalignant gastric conditions and 38 healthy controls.
According to Perati, there were “distinct differences” in the oral microbiome of patients with gastric cancer compared with controls, with an abundance of 32 bacterial genera identified between groups. Researchers reported similar differences between patients with premalignant gastric conditions and the control group, with 23 bacterial genera identified.
“However, we found very little difference between the oral microbiome composition of the premalignant and gastric cancer groups,” she said. “This suggests that the changes in the microbiome may begin to occur as the stomach environment starts to undergo changes that eventually become cancer.”
Based on these findings, Perati and colleagues developed a tenfold cross-validation model of the 13 bacterial genera that demonstrated the most significant differences between controls and patients with cancer or premalignant gastric conditions.
“Even with our small cohort, we were able to see some stark differences between the oral microbiome in gastric cancer and premalignant conditions compared to controls,” Perati said. “Our findings suggest that the oral microbiome has the potential to be used as a noninvasive biomarker of precancerous and cancerous changes of the stomach and that the oral microbiome may serve as a window into the composition of the stomach environment.”
She added, “This has huge implications that could eventually lead to the development of noninvasive and accessible early screening for gastric cancer.”
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Perati SR, et al. Oral microbiome signatures as potential biomarkers for gastric cancer risk assessment. Presented at: Digestive Disease Week; May 18-21, 2024; Washington (hybrid).
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