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Certain types of mouth bacteria could be linked to the development of pancreatic cancer, according to a study.
The information comes for the journal GUT and comes from bacteria like Granulicatella adjacens. This research may aid in the treatment of pancreatic cancer, which is one of the most difficult cancers to treat. Pancreatic cancer generally kills 19 of 20 people afflicted with the disease in five years or fewer.
To compile the information, researchers studied the saliva of 10 pancreatic cancer patients whose cancer had yet to spread. The researchers compared the results with the saliva of 10 healthy people.
There were major differences in the bacterial colonies of the two groups regarding the species of bacteria.
To confirm the information, the researchers looked at tissue samples of 28 patients who suffered from chronic inflammation of the pancreas. There ended up being two species of bacteria that appeared much less often in the mouths of the cancer patients, while there was another species—Granulicatella adjacens—that was significantly higher.
Researchers are still uncertain if the specific bacteria results in pancreatic cancer but it appears that the bacteria have some impact on pancreatic cancer development. These findings could be pivotal because it’s possible that screening for certain types of bacteria will become an early detection method for pancreatic cancer.
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