Antibodies to Oral Pathobionts and Colon Cancer Risk in the CLUE I Cohort Study.

Abstract

Periodontitis has been associated with an increased risk for gastrointestinal cancers. The objective of this study was to investigate the association of antibodies to oral bacteria and the risk of colon cancer in a cohort setting. Using the CLUE I cohort, a prospective cohort initiated in 1974 in Washington County, Maryland, we conducted a nested case-control study to examine the association of levels of IgG antibodies to eleven oral bacterial species (thirteen total strains) with risk of colon cancer diagnosed a median of 16 years later (range: 1-26 years). Antibody response was measured using checkerboard immunoblotting assays. We included 200 colon cancer cases and 200 controls matched on age, sex, cigarette smoking status, time of blood draw, and pipe or cigar smoking status. Controls were selected using incidence density sampling. Conditional logistic regression models were used to assess the association between antibody levels and colon cancer risk. In the overall analysis, we observed significant inverse associations for 6 of the 13 antibodies measured (p-trends <0.05) and one positive association for antibody levels to Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans (ATCC 29523; p-trend=0.04). While we cannot rule out a role for periodontal disease in colon cancer risk, findings from this study suggest that a strong adaptive immune response may be associated with a lower risk of colon cancer. More studies will need to examine whether the positive associations we observed with antibodies to A. actinomycetemcomitans reflect a true causal association for this bacterium. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.