Oral Cyanobacteria and Hepatocellular Carcinoma.

Background: Gut microbial alterations have been linked to chronic liver disease and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The role of the oral microbiome in liver cancer development has not been widely investigated.

Methods: Bacterial 16S rRNA sequences were evaluated in oral samples from 90 HCC cases and 90 controls who were a part of a larger U.S. case-control study of HCC among patients diagnosed from 2011 to 2016.

Results: The oral microbiome of HCC cases showed significantly reduced alpha diversity compared with controls (Shannon = 0.002; Simpson = 0.049), and beta diversity significantly differed (weighted Unifrac = 0.004). The relative abundance of 30 taxa significantly varied including Cyanobacteria, which was enriched in cases compared with controls ( = 0.018). Cyanobacteria was positively associated with HCC [OR, 8.71; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.22-62.00; = 0.031] after adjustment for age, race, birthplace, education, smoking, alcohol, obesity, type 2 diabetes, Hepatitis C virus (HCV), Hepatitis B virus (HBV), fatty liver disease, aspirin use, other NSAID use, laboratory batch, and other significant taxa. When stratified by HCC risk factors, significant associations of Cyanobacteria with HCC were exclusively observed among individuals with negative histories of established risk factors as well as females and college graduates. Cyanobacterial genes positively associated with HCC were specific to taxa producing microcystin, the hepatotoxic tumor promotor, and other genes known to be upregulated with microcystin exposure.

Conclusions: Our study provides novel evidence that oral Cyanobacteria may be an independent risk factor for HCC.

Impact: These findings support future studies to further examine the causal relationship between oral Cyanobacteria and HCC risk.