Is periodontitis a risk indicator for cancer? A meta-analysis

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 13; no. 4; p. e0195683
• Main Authors: Corbella, Stefano, Veronesi, Paolo, Galimberti, Viviana, Weinstein, Roberto, Del Fabbro, Massimo, Francetti, Luca
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 17.04.2018; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Alcohol use; Biology and Life Sciences; Blood cancer; Breast cancer; Cancer; Dental research; Diabetes; Digestive tract; Disease; Earth Sciences; Epidemiology; Esophagus; Gastrointestinal tract; Gum disease; Head & neck cancer; Health care; Health risks; Hematology; Human papillomavirus; Human subjects; Lung cancer; Lung diseases; Lymphoma; Medical research; Medicine and Health Sciences; Meta-analysis; Oncology; Oral cancer; Oropharyngeal cancer; Pancreatic cancer; Pathogens; Periodontitis; Physical Sciences; Prostate cancer; Public health; Research and Analysis Methods; Statistical analysis; Studies; Synthesis; Systematic review; Throat cancer; Tumors; Italy
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0195683

The aim of the present systematic review was to evaluate the hypothesis of an association between periodontitis and the development of cancer. Two reviewers independently screened electronic and manual sources for pertinent articles. Primary outcome measures were the occurrence of neoplasm diagnosis in exposed and non-exposed groups, reported to evaluate association between cancer and periodontitis. Of the 490 initially retrieved papers 10 were included in the qualitative synthesis and eight in the quantitative synthesis; the eight papers covered six studies. Considering hazard ratios, a statistically significant association was found for all cancers studied (1.14; CI 95%: 1.04, 1.24), digestive tract cancer (1.34; CI 95%: 1.05, 1.72), pancreatic cancer (1.74; CI 95%: 1.21, 2.52), prostate cancer (1.25; CI 95%: 1.04, 1.51), breast cancer (1.11; CI 95%: 1.00, 1.23), corpus uteri cancer (2.20; CI 95%: 1.16, 4.18), lung cancer (1.24; CI 95%: 1.06, 1.45), hematological cancer (1.30; CI 95%: 1.11, 1.53), esophagus / oropharyngeal cancer pooled together (2.25; CI 95%: 1.30, 3.90) and Non-Hodgkin lymphoma (1.30; CI 95%: 1.11, 1.52). Despite the sparse scientific evidence and considering the low statistical power of the results, this systematic review revealed a substantial lack of studies with standardized and comparable methods to speculate about the association between periodontitis and cancer; more studies are need in order to explore further the scientific evidence of such correlation.