Tooth Cavities May Protect Against Cancer 149
Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes "John Gever reports at MedPage Today on a new study conducted by researchers from the University of Buffalo, which found that people with more cavities in their teeth are 32 percent less likely to suffer from head and neck cancers. 'To our knowledge, the present study suggests, for the first time, an independent association between dental caries and head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.' The researchers proposed a mechanism for the apparent protective effect: that cariogenic, lactic acid-producing bacteria prompt cell-mediated Th1 immune responses that suppress tumor formation. The team examined records of patients older than 21 seen in the university's dental and maxillofacial prosthetics department from 1999 to 2007, identifying 399 who were newly diagnosed with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma. Assuming that the association between caries and reduced cancer risk is real, the team suggests that one could regard the cariogenic bacteria as beneficial overall, with caries 'a form of collateral damage.' Therefore an appropriate strategy could be to target that effect specifically without aggressively targeting the bacteria. 'Antimicrobial treatment, vaccination, or gene therapy against cariogenic bacteria may lead to more harm than good in the long run.'"
FRAUD ALERT! JAMA again. (Score:2, Interesting)
This seems to be intentional fraud by JAMA, the Journal of the American Medical Association. The abstract of the JAMA Otolaryngology -- Head and Neck Surgery article calls the effect an "association".
The abstract should carry a warning something like this: "This is just a discovery of an association. No claim is made that one effect causes the other."
Instead, "MedPage Today, LLC and the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania" published the "association" as cause and effect: "Dental Caries May Protect Against Cancer". In my opinion, that is fraud of a kind that is engaged in again and again. JAMA knows this occurs and does nothing to stop it. Instead, the public is encouraged to believe that something far more important than an "association" has been discovered. In effect, JAMA is allowing dishonest advertising of the medical and dental professions. JAMA seems to be an aggressive organization that sometimes promotes financial success for doctors against the interests of the public.
Also, the PDF of the slides is misleading. My understanding is that fluoridation means monitoring the levels of fluoride and adding fluoride so that the amount in the water is sufficient, as a child's permanent teeth are growing, to prevent tooth decay over the child's entire young and adult life. Once fluoride is incorporated into the teeth of children, the problem of dental infection by decay-causing bacteria is solved, because the pH required to cause decay in teeth that have fluoride included is never achieved by the bacteria. So, the slides are talking about cures for problems that occur only in people who did not have fluoridated water in childhood. I have friends who say that fluoridation had that effect in themselves and their children.
tonsils? (Score:3, Interesting)
How many of these people still have their tonsils? I recall reading in one of the journals, probably on arxxiv and phys.org too, that there is some supporting data showing essentially a second immune system just for the mouth.
No link 'cause my google-fu is coffee fueled.
Re:Correlation due to lifestyle or diet? (Score:5, Interesting)
The U.S. National Cancer Institutes has resorted to hiring physicists such as Paul Davies [youtube.com] to try to get a better grasp of cancer, because the medical folk just arent getting anywhere. The video is in fact of Paul Davies giving a talk about the state of cancer research.