Midtveisevaluering- Nuha Mohamed Gaafar Mohamed

Nuha Mohamed Gaafar Mohamed er tilknyttet Klinisk institutt 1. Veiledere er Daniela Elena Costea, Anne Christine Johannessen, Audun Helge Nerland, Vidar Bakken og Elisabeth Sivy Nginamau

PhD project

Oral microbiome identification and its correlations with the inflammatory host reaction and survival of oral squamous cell carcinoma patients from Sudan

Oral squamous cell carcinoma is among the most common malignancies in Sudan. Oral cancer etiology is multifactorial and one of the factors that has been studied is the effect of microorganisms on contribution to carcinogenesis in humans. There are previous studies that have reported that the microbiota of OSCC lesions differs from that found on the soft tissues of OSCC-free individuals; nevertheless, none was performed on a cohort of Sudanese patients, with toombak as main etiological factor.

Thus, we hypothesize that specific bacterial strains from oral microbiota are associated with cancerous oral disease and can be identified in saliva of patients providing possible diagnostic, prognostic and predictive information. These bacteria may have a direct pathognomonic effect (increased tumor initiation and invasion ability) on dysplastic and malignant keratinocytes and do contribute to the establishment of an inflammatory environment that promotes carcinogenesis.

We aimed to characterize the oral microbiome of oral squamous cell carcinoma patients from Sudan and its putative prognostic role and this was done by using 16S rRNA gene profiling. Analysis is on progress and results will be correlated with the inflammatory host reaction.