Overview

• Researchers analyzed saliva from about 122,000 participants in the CPS-II and PLCO cohorts and tracked cancer outcomes for roughly nine years.
• They compared oral microbiomes of 445 people who developed pancreatic cancer with 445 matched cancer-free controls while accounting for factors such as age, race, and smoking.
• A community of 27 species was associated with substantially higher risk, including periodontal pathogens Porphyromonas gingivalis, Eubacterium nodatum, and Parvimonas micra.
• Oral Candida species were linked to risk and were identified in pancreatic tumor samples, offering biological plausibility without establishing a causal role.
• The team created a preliminary microbiome-based risk estimator and outlined plans for independent validation along with studies of oral viruses and patient survival.