A new study from Guy’s and St Thomas’ and King’s College London has found that a type of bacteria in the mouth kills cancer cells in the head and neck.
As noted in a study published in Cancer Communications, head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) is a devastating type of cancer, the sixth most common worldwide. It lacks any recent advances in treatment.
But scientists may have found new hope in a bacterium known as fusobacterium, which advances bowel cancer but stops cancer dead in its tracks in the head and neck, according to Guys and St Thomas.
“This research reveals that these bacteria play a more complex role in cancer than previously known – that they essentially melt away head and neck cancer cells.
However, this finding should be balanced against their known role in worsening cancer, such as colon cancer,” said Dr. Miguel Reis Ferreira, lead author.
An international team of scientists led by Dr. Ferreiro analyzed data from 155 head and neck cancer patients.
Notably, patients with higher Fusobacteria levels consistently had a better prognosis, as reported by Guys and St. Thomas than patients with lower levels naturally.
Their chances of survival increased by 65 percent, The Guardian reported.
“Essentially, we found that when you find these bacteria in head and neck cancer, they have much better outcomes.” Another thing we found is that in cell cultures, this bacterium is able to kill cancer,” quoted Dr. Ferreira press release Guys and St. Thomas.
After leaving the bacteria in a petri dish of cancer cells in the lab for a few days, 70-90% of the cancer disappeared. It destroys the tumor by releasing toxic molecules.
“You put it in cancer in very small amounts and it starts killing it very quickly,” he said, according to The Guardian.
They expected fusobacteria to irritate cancer cells in the head and neck because it promotes the growth of cancer in the intestines, and instead they potentially discovered a breakthrough drug for this type of cancer.
“At the end of a few days, it completely destroys the cancer,” said Dr. Ferrier.
Since the research is in its early stages, they are looking to continue studying how these findings might affect outcomes for patients with head and neck cancer and other types that have not yet been studied.
It opens new doors for experimenting with other bacteria that researchers wouldn’t expect to work on because one type that promotes cancer growth can kill it when applied to others.
“Our findings are remarkable and very surprising. We had a eureka moment when we discovered that our international colleagues had also found data that confirmed the discovery,” said Dr. Anjali Chander, senior clinical researcher at King’s College London and lead author at Guys and St. Thomas.
Barbara Kasumu, chief executive of Guy’s Cancer Charity, concluded via The Guardian that “we are proud to support the ground-breaking research carried out by Miguel and Anjali, which aims to improve our understanding of head and neck cancer and develop more compassionate and effective treatments.” “
Their work was recently published in Cancer Communications.
