Abstract A36: Oral microbiota associated to periodontal disease as a risk factor for oropharyngeal cancer, in patients from sexually transmitted infection clinics in Puerto Rico

Oropharyngeal cancer is on the rise in the US, and despite advances in cancer treatments, oral cancer has a poor prognosis. Tobacco, marihuana, and alcohol use are considered risk factors for oral cancer, as well as periodontal disease (PD) and chronic inflammation, which are considered a significant increase in risk for oral cancer. An altered microbiota is linked with several oral diseases, as several pathogenic species lead to chronic inflammation, and its metabolites may induce permanent genetic alterations and epithelial carcinogenesis. We aimed to relate human papilloma virus (HPV) infection and severity of periodontal disease with the oral microbiota. This ongoing cross-sectional study is recruiting patients aged 21 to 49 from sexually transmitted infection clinics in Puerto Rico. A total of 73 patients were assessed using face-to-face interviews collect sociodemographic, behavioral, oral, and medical characteristics, along with a full-mouth periodontal examination following the NHANES protocol. Periodontitis was defined according to the Centers for Disease Control/American Academy of Periodontology (CDC/AAP) case classification. The saliva collected was used for genomic DNA extractions and 16S rRNA genes were sequenced with Illumina MiSeq. Samples were analyzed according to HPV status (4 HPV+, 69 HPV-) and periodontal disease severity (44 without PD, 14 mild PD, and 15 moderate to severe PD). Sequence data were deposited in QIITA and data analyses were done in QIIME. While 5% of study participants had oral HPV infection, 60% had no periodontitis, 19% had mild, 18% had moderate, and 3% had severe periodontitis. A total of 2.56 million reads were binned into 4,119 bacterial OTUs and 27 were archaea. We found a total of 32 phyla, no significant differences in structure nor in alpha diversity according to HPV infections nor when stratified by gender (likely due to low sample number), BMI, tobacco, or marijuana use. Significant higher alpha diversity was found in periodontitis patients. Those with severe periodontitis had increased amounts of Verrucomicrobia and Firmicutes. Akkermansia had higher abundance in patients with mild periodontitis while Veilonella was more abundant in those with severe periodontitis. Although more patients are needed, our preliminary data seem to indicate that oral microbiota dysbiosis is associated with periodontal disease, suggesting a possible role in oral cancer development. Citation Format: Filipa Godoy-Vitorino, Cynthia Perez, Kimil Acosta, Brayan Vilanova, Jeslie Ramos-Cartagena, Jose Vivaldi, Ana P. Ortiz. Oral microbiota associated to periodontal disease as a risk factor for oropharyngeal cancer, in patients from sexually transmitted infection clinics in Puerto Rico [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR Special Conference on the Microbiome, Viruses, and Cancer; 2020 Feb 21-24; Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2020;80(8 Suppl):Abstract nr A36.