Boksa Francis A, Leinbach Leah I, Mody Drashty P, Ganesan Sukirth M, Mays Jacqueline W
National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, National Institutes of Health.
Res Sq. 2025 Jun 24:rs.3.rs-6930838. doi: 10.21203/rs.3.rs-6930838/v1.
Cancer therapies impact the oral cavity. Oral microbial changes occur following cancer therapy, but the nature, duration and implications of these shifts are not well understood. Exposure to radiation, chemotherapy or cellular therapies has been associated with oral microbiome shifts toward dysbiosis and increased frequency of pathogenic species in the microbiome. Despite these findings, much remains unknown about cancer-therapy related changes in the oral microbiome following specific therapies, and what the associated long-term oral health implications may be for cancer survivorship. We therefore conducted a scoping review of oral microbiome studies in patients undergoing cancer therapy to broadly synthesize the literature on the oral microbiome in the context of cancer therapy, categorize findings, and identify research gaps to inform future projects.
This scoping review of the literature describes substantial changes in the oral microbiome during cancer treatment, specifically chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and stem cell transplantation. Across 62 studies, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and stem cell transplantation were associated with significant changes in oral microbial communities. Among studies that assessed alpha diversity, the richness of species that comprised the oral microbiome often increased, encompassing more microbial taxa, while the evenness of species decreased, suggesting that community change was dominated by a few species. Frequently observed changes included decreases in commensal taxa such as and and increases in opportunistic organisms such as and . While mucositis was often studied, consistent microbial predictors of this outcome were not identified.
The present study lays the groundwork for future research on the unique oral microenvironment and health needs in cancer survivors. The alterations in microbiome composition associated with specific cancer treatment categories add to our limited understanding of the key role of cancer therapy modalities on the oral microbiome.
癌症治疗会影响口腔。癌症治疗后口腔微生物会发生变化，但这些变化的性质、持续时间和影响尚不清楚。接触辐射、化疗或细胞疗法与口腔微生物群向生态失调转变以及微生物群中致病物种频率增加有关。尽管有这些发现，但对于特定治疗后口腔微生物群中与癌症治疗相关的变化，以及癌症幸存者可能面临的长期口腔健康影响，仍有许多未知之处。因此，我们对接受癌症治疗的患者的口腔微生物群研究进行了一项范围综述，以广泛综合癌症治疗背景下关于口腔微生物群的文献，对研究结果进行分类，并确定研究空白，为未来项目提供参考。
这项文献范围综述描述了癌症治疗期间，特别是化疗、放疗和干细胞移植期间口腔微生物群的重大变化。在62项研究中，化疗、放疗和干细胞移植与口腔微生物群落的显著变化有关。在评估α多样性的研究中，构成口腔微生物群的物种丰富度通常会增加，涵盖更多的微生物分类群，而物种均匀度则会下降，这表明群落变化主要由少数物种主导。经常观察到的变化包括共生类群（如 和 ）减少，以及机会性生物体（如 和 ）增加。虽然经常研究口腔黏膜炎，但未确定该结果一致的微生物预测指标。
本研究为未来关于癌症幸存者独特口腔微环境和健康需求的研究奠定了基础。与特定癌症治疗类别相关的微生物群组成变化，增加了我们对癌症治疗方式对口腔微生物群关键作用的有限理解。
