Researchers have examined the impact a common bacteria can have on head and neck cancers.
A common type of bacteria has been found to make certain cancers “melt”, scientists have discovered.
Researchers said that they were “brutally surprised” to find that Fusobacterium – a bacteria commonly found in the mouth – appears to have the ability to kill certain cancers.
People whose head and neck cancers were found to have this bacteria within their cancer have also been found to have “much better outcomes”, according to a new study.
The exact biological mechanisms behind the link are being keenly studied by researchers at Guy’s and St Thomas’ and King’s College London, after they made the initial finding.
Their new study, conducted in collaboration with an international team of researchers, used a number of different methods to study the link.
Scientists used modelling to help identify which bacteria may be of interest to further investigate.
Then they studied the effect of the bacteria on cancerous cells in a laboratory and also performed an analysis on data on 155 patients with head and neck cancer whose tumour information had been submitted to the Cancer Genome Atlas database.
Academics initially expected a completely different outcome as previous research has linked Fusobacterium to the progression of bowel cancer.
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