Gum disease linked with pancreatic cancer

[Guest guest]

January 16, 2007

Gum disease linked with pancreatic cancer in study

By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Gum disease might raise a person's risk of

pancreatic cancer by causing general inflammation through the body,

U.S. researchers said on Tuesday.

They found that men who had periodontal disease had a 63 percent

higher risk of developing pancreatic cancer than men with healthy

teeth and gums. Men who lost teeth within the past four years were

especially likely to develop pancreatic cancer, they reported in the

Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

While the study does not definitively show that gum disease causes

cancer, the researchers say the evidence is strong. They filtered out

other factors known to be linked with pancreatic cancer, such as

smoking and obesity.

" Most convincing was our finding that never-smokers (with gum disease)

had a two-fold increase in risk of pancreatic cancer, " said Dominique

Michaud of the Harvard School of Public Health, who led the study.

Michaud's team studied 48,000 men taking part in the Health

Professionals Follow-Up Study between 1986 and 2002. These men, aged

40 to 75 at the start, answered a battery of questions about health

and lifestyle and were then watched to see which diseases they developed.

More than half the men are dentists.

" On the baseline questionnaire, participants responded to the

following question: 'Have you had periodontal disease with bone

loss? " ' the researchers wrote.

Pancreatic cancer is the fourth-leading cause of cancer deaths in the

United States. It will kill 95 percent of the 32,000 people who get it

this year, according to the American Cancer Society.

It is not usually diagnosed until it is far advanced, and thus ways to

identify people at high risk might save lives.

" Our study provides the first strong evidence that periodontal disease

may increase the risk of pancreatic cancer. This finding is of

significance as it may provide some new insights into the mechanism of

this highly fatal disease, " Michaud said in a statement.

Periodontal disease is caused when bacteria infect the gums and the

infection gradually destroys bone. Other studies have found a link

between gum disease or tooth loss and pancreatic cancer, but did not

account for smoking -- which can cause both gum disease and pancreatic

cancer.

In this study, the effects of gum disease appeared to affect

non-smokers more than smokers, the researchers found.

Nonetheless, this study is not proof, Michaud said.

" More research is needed both to confirm this finding in other

populations and also to explore the role of inflammation in this

particular cancer, " she said.

" The association may be due to systemic (throughout the body)

inflammation and/or increased levels of carcinogenic compounds

generated by bacteria in the oral cavity of individuals with

periodontal disease, " the researchers wrote.

The men with gum disease seemed to have chronic inflammation -- their

levels of a protein called C-reactive protein, a measure of

inflammation, were 30 percent higher than those of men with healthy gums.

Or the bacteria responsible for the gum loss could produce

nitrosamines, which are compounds known to cause cancer.

" Individuals with periodontal disease and poor oral hygiene have

elevated levels of oral bacteria and have much higher nitrosamine

levels in their oral cavity, " the researchers wrote.