Head & Neck Network

Is your mouth talking to cancer? The link between oral microbiota and Head & Neck Cancer

Head and neck cancer is the 6th most common cancer worldwide, with over half a million new cases every year. We know to***co, alcohol and HPV play a major role, but science is uncovering a new actor: your oral microbiome.

Your mouth is one of the most complex ecosystems in the body, home to 700 to thousands of species of bacteria, fungi and more.

When this ecosystem loses balance, a state called dysbiosis, it can contribute to cancer development.
How?

1. Chronic inflammation & immune escape
Certain bacteria release genotoxins, create oxidative stress and modulate both innate and acquired immunity, favoring a pro-tumor microenvironment.

2. The “bad actors”
Recent reviews consistently find higher abundance of Gram-negative species in patients with HNSCC, including Fusobacterium (especially F. nucleatum), Porphyromonas gingivalis, Prevotella, Parvimonas and Peptostreptococcus.

3. The protectors
Not all bacteria are enemies. Corynebacterium and Kingella appear to have a preventive effect, while Bacillus, Lactobacillus and Sphingomonas are associated with a more favorable prognosis.

Why does this matter?
Ninety percent of head and neck cancers are squamous cell carcinomas, and to***co and alcohol can further modify the oral microbiota. Understanding these microbial signatures could lead to non-invasive biomarkers for early diagnosis, prognosis stratification, and even new therapeutic targets that improve response to radiotherapy, chemotherapy and immunotherapy.
This is still an evolving field. Dysbiosis alone does not cause cancer, but it interacts with known risk factors. Good oral hygiene, smoking cessation, limiting alcohol, and HPV vaccination remain key preventive tools.
Research is moving toward personalized medicine. Your microbiome might be part of it.

Maura Gillison, who identified the role of HPV in head and neck cancer, changing the standard of care, dies at 61

Maura L. Gillison, MD, PhD, a medical oncologist and molecular epidemiologist whose work changed the standard of care for head and neck cancer by distinguishing human papillomavirus-positive from HPV-negative disease and thereby guiding diagnosis, treatment and prevention, died on June 21.

As a post-doctoral fellow at the Kimmel Cancer Center and Bloomberg School of Public Health at Hopkins, Gillison demonstrated that a subset of head and neck cancers of the pharynx, tonsils, and base of tongue was driven by HPV.
“Until her discovery, it was understood that head and neck cancer was caused by to***co and alcohol and case reports of the presence of HPV in some tumors was attributed to laboratory contamination,” William G. Nelson, the Marion I. Knott Professor and Director of Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center, said in an announcement of Gillion’s death to the faculty. “She subsequently led a prospective case control study, at the SKCCC, which definitively demonstrated the causal role of HPV in oropharynx cancer published in 2007 in The New England Journal of Medicine.

Maura, rest in peace

PLAYING MUSIC TO CELLS REDUCES LARYNGEAL CANCER AGGRESSIVENESS

The continuous movement of the vocal cords weakens and eventually stops as laryngeal cancer progresses. Researchers have, for the first time, discovered that restoring cellular vibration reduces the aggressiveness of advanced vocal cord cancer. When cancer cells were exposed to sound-wave vibration, a protein that promotes cancer growth and severity decreased.

Laryngeal cancer is one of the most common malignant tumors of the head and neck region. The most common early symptom is hoarseness, as the cancer typically appears in the vocal cords, and their movement gradually becomes impaired as the disease develops. Movement decreases because the vocal cord tissue stiffens and the cancer invades surrounding tissue.
The most significant risk factors are smoking and heavy alcohol consumption.

The results of the study are published in Nature Materials.

The researchers’ predictions proved correct: Exposing cancer cells to vibration-mimicking vocal cord movement reduced their malignancy. One of the observed changes was a decrease in a protein called YAP in the cells.