Abstract
ObjectivesTo determine the prevalence of Candida species by PCR–RFLP method in the saliva of patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC), oral potentially malignant disorders (OPMD) and healthy cohorts. Unstimulated saliva was collected from patients with OSCC (n = 97), OPMD (n = 200), and healthy controls (n = 200). Candida species were isolated using the standard protocol. The isolates were identified using phenotypic and genotypic methods. The odds/risk ratio was calculated using Pearson’s Chi-square test. The significance of Candidal carriage was calculated by independent T-test.ResultsOral Candidal carriage was 72.2%, 58% and 20.5% among patients with OSCC, OPMD, and healthy controls respectively. The oral Candidal carriage in OSCC and OPMD was highly significant (p = 0.0001). Non albicans Candida predominated over Candida albicans. Candida species were diverse among the study groups with a predominance of Candida krusei, Candida tropicalis, and Pichia anomala formerly Candida pelliculosa. P. anomala occurrence outnumbered in health. The odds/risk ratio for OSCC and OPMD were 4.25/11.87 and 3.52/6.99 respectively. A high prevalence of non albicans Candida was observed both in all the three groups (OSCC, OPMD and healthy controls). High odds and risk ratio associates Candida species to OSCC and OPMD. Candida famata may be associated with OSCC and OPMD.
Highlights
Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is the foremost cause for mortality
The results of the present study show a highly significant oral candidal carriage among oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) and oral potentially malignant disorders (OPMD) groups compared to healthy cohorts
Majority of the earlier studies on oral Candidal carriage in OSCC and OPMD have employed solely phenotypic assays and the present study focused to discuss only the literature with similar genotypic methodology
Summary
Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is the foremost cause for mortality. OSCC is the sixth most common cancer reported globally with an annual incidence of over 300,000 cases. It is the 12th most common cancer in women and sixth in men. Asia, it is the third most common type of cancer. In South and South East Asia, high incidence of oral cancer is found in Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan and Taiwan [1]. The age-adjusted rates can vary from over 20 per 100,000 populations in India, to 10 per 100,000 in the United States, and less than 2 per 100,000 in the Middle East [2]
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