Subspecies Niche Specialization in the Oral Microbiome Is Associated with Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma Risk.

ABSTRACT: Oral health and changes in the oral microbiome have been associated with both local and systemic cancer. Poor oral hygiene is a known risk factor for nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC), a virally associated head and neck cancer endemic to southern China. We explored the relationship between NPC and the oral microbiome using 16S rRNA sequencing in a study of 499 NPC patients and 495 population-based age and sex frequency-matched controls from an area of endemicity of Southern China. We found a significant reduction in community richness in cases compared to that in controls. Differences in the overall microbial community structure between cases and controls could not be explained by other potential confounders; disease status explained 5 times more variation in the unweighted UniFrac distance t

SUBMITTER: Debelius JW 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7343305 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature