Tooth loss and risk of colorectal, pancreatic and liver cancers in the Golestan cohort study

Authors

• C Kwiat
• T Goto
• L Saligan

Abstract

The oral microbiome is involved with the development of poor oral health conditions such as tooth decay/loss, and periodontal disease. Poor oral health has been associated with various cancers. Here, we assessed the association between tooth loss and risk of colorectal, liver and pancreatic cancers in the Golestan Cohort Study (GCS).
GCS, a large prospective cohort from Golestan Province, Iran, includes 50045 individuals within 40 to 75 years of age at baseline. Cox proportional hazards models were used to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) and corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CIs).
During a median follow-up of 15 years, there were 171, 82 and 98 incident colorectal, liver and pancreatic cancer cases, respectively.
The preliminary models, adjusted for demographic and lifestyle variables, did not find any statistically significant associations for colorectal cancer. For liver cancer, the first two tertiles of tooth loss had a nonsignificant increased HR of 1.56 (95% CI: 0.89 - 2.74) and 1.44 (95% CI: 0.79 – 2.63), respectively and dropped to 0.93 (95% CI: 0.46 – 1.89) for the highest tertile. For pancreatic cancer, the HRs showed an increasing trend with HRs of 0.98 (95% CI: 0.55 - 1.76), 1.03 (95% CI: 0.59 - 1.78) and 1.53 (95% CI: 0.87 - 2.68) respectively, across the tooth loss tertile categories.
In this population with low general oral hygiene, we did not find significant associations between tooth loss and colorectal, pancreatic and liver cancers, but we plan to evaluate other measures of oral health and the risk of these cancers.

Scientific Focus Area: ACI/IRS

This page was last updated on Monday, September 25, 2023