Oral examination being conducted by doctors. Wikimedia Commons
A new study from Guy’s and St. Thomas’ and King’s College London found that a type of mouth bacteria kills cancer cells in the head and neck.
As stated in the study published in Cancer Communications, head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) is a devastating type of cancer, the sixth most common in the world. It lacks any recent advancement in treatment.
However researchers may have found new hope in a bacteria known as fusobacterium that progresses bowel cancer but stops cancer dead in its tracks in the head and neck, as per Guys and St Thomas.
“This research reveals that these bacteria play a more complex role than previously known in their relationship with cancer – that they essentially melt head and neck cancer cells. However, this finding should be balanced by their known role in making cancers, such as those in the bowel, get worse,” Dr. Miguel Reis Ferreira, senior author stated.
The groundbreaking study that surprised researchers
An international team of scientists led by Dr. Ferreira analyzed data from 155 head and neck cancer patients. Remarkably, patients with higher levels of fusobacterium had a better prognosis consistently, as stated in Guys’ and St. Thomas research, than those with lower levels of it naturally.
Their chances at survival increased by 65 percent, as The Guardian reported.
“In essence, we found that when you find these bacteria within head and neck cancers, they have much better outcomes. The other thing that we found is that in cell cultures this bacterium is capable of killing cancer,” Dr. Ferreira was quoted in the press release from Guys and St. Thomas.
After leaving the bacteria in a petri dish with cancer cells for a couple of days in the lab, 70-90% of the cancer disappeared. It destroys the tumor by releasing toxic molecules. “You put it in the cancer at very low quantities and it just starts killing it very quickly,” he said according to The Guardian.
New hope for head and neck cancer treatment
They expected the fusobacterium to exasperate cancer cells in the head and neck as it supports cancer growth in the bowels and potentially discovered a groundbreaking cure for this type of cancer instead. “At the end of a few days it just destroys the cancer completely,” Dr. Ferriera stated.
As the research is in its initial phases, they seek to continue studying how these findings could impact patient outcomes with head and neck cancer and other types yet to be explored. It opens up new doors to experimenting with other bacteria that researchers might not expect to work as one that supports cancer growth in one type might kill it when applied to others.
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“Our findings are remarkable and very surprising. We had a eureka moment when we found that our international colleagues also found data that validated the discovery,” Dr Anjali Chander said, senior clinical research fellow at King’s College London and lead author in Guys and St. Thomas.
Barbara Kasumu, Executive Director of Guy’s Cancer Charity concluded via The Guardian that “we are proud to support the ground-breaking research conducted by Miguel and Anjali, which aims to enhance our understanding of head and neck cancer and develop more compassionate and effective treatments.”
They paper was recently published in Cancer Communications.
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Maria Mocerino Originally from LA, Maria Mocerino has been published in Business Insider, The Irish Examiner, The Rogue Mag, Chacruna Institute for Psychedelic Plant Medicines, and now Interesting Engineering.
