Focus on periodontal disease and colorectal carcinoma

Diagnosis of focal disease, the theory that the human oral microbial (HOM) could affect the onset and development of systemic diseases, was very popular in the past, but the lack of scientific evidence has led to the abandonment of this idea. Interestingly, increasing evidence over the past 3 or so decades suggests that HOM can indeed serve as a reservoir for systemic dissemination of pathogenic bacteria and their toxins in distant body sites, favouring the developments of malignant tumours. Malignant tumours are complex communities of oncogenically transformed cells with aberrant genomes, associated non-neoplastic cells including immune and stromal cells, and sometimes HOM, including bacteria and viruses. Recent data suggest that HOM and periodontal disease play an active role in the pathogenesis of colorectal cancer, in fact HOM has been found within the colorectal cancer microenvironment, and the composition of the HOM was different from that of adjacent non-neoplastic tissue. An association of fusobacterium nucleatum with the colonic mucosa of colorectal cancer has been proven. Several questions thus arise. Is periodontal disease a risk factor for colorectal carcinoma? Given the connectivity of the digestive tract, could fusubacterium nucleatum or other HOM be involved in additional gastrointestinal disorders? Furthermore, based on the "mobility" of Fusubacterium nucleatum and the omnipresence of cadherins, could this organism be involved in cancers beyond the gastrointestinal tract? Answers to these questions will shed new lights on the role of the HOM in onset of diseases.