Common type of bacteria makes certain cancers ‘melt’

There is cancer killing bacteria, yes a normal bacteria that is known to dissolve certain types of cancers, researchers have said. 
 
Scientists stated that they were ‘savagely caught off guard’ to realise that Fusobacterium, a bacteria normally residing in the mouth, seemed to have the capability to wipe out certain kinds of cancers. 
 
Head/neck cancer sufferers who were identified to have this bacteria in their actual cancer also considered to have “much better survival rates,” added the research. 
 
The specific biochemical pathways through which the association occurs are now being investigated by scientists st Guy’s and St Thomas’ and King’s College London after they made the discovery. 
 
In their new study, which involved a team of other scholars from other parts of the world, they employed a number of techniques to investigate the association. 
 
Modelling was applied in order to sort out the bacteria which could be of interest to study next. 
 
Then they examined the impact of the bacteria on cancer cells in the laboratory and also did analysis of data of 155 patient with head/neck cancer and whose tumor information was averagely submitted to the Cancer Genome Atlas database. 
 
Different outcome expected 
 
Scholars could predict a completely opposite outcome involved in earlier researches as Fusobacterium has been associated with the advancement of bowel cancer. 
 
In the laboratory studies, the researchers place quantities of the bacteria in Petri dishes and let them grow for a day or two. When they observed the impact of the bacteria to the cancer, what they observed was that the quantity of cancer reduced significantly. 
 
Considering the previous researches to assess cytotoxicity, they identified that there was a 70 to 99 per cent decrease in the viable cancer cells in head and neck cancer cells once infected by Fusobacterium. 
 
Breakdown of patient information revealed that patients who had Fusobacterium bacteria in their cancer were likely to survive than the others who did not have the bacteria. Of the totality of patients with head and neck cancers, fusobacterium detectability was related to a 65 per cent reduced risk of death as compared to patients whose cancers were not contaminated with the bacteria. 
 
Scientists believe the discovery may assist in mapping out further management in health complications in head and neck cancer patients which encompasses cancers of the mouth, throat, voice box, nose and sinus. 
 
‘Bacteria play complex role’ 
 
Academic professionals stated that there have been few therapeutic breakthroughs in head and neck cancer over the last 20 years so the work may open up new possibilities of treatment. 
 
“In other words, it seems that, should you have these bacteria within your head and neck cancers, then your prognosis would be better,” Reis Ferreira said in the interview with the PA news agency. 
 
“What we are seeing is that this little bug is resulting in a better prognosis just driven by something it is doing within the malignancy We are currently searching for that mechanism as it should be the focus of the next short-term paper. 
 
Dr Reis Ferreira, a consultant in head and neck cancers at Guy’s and St Thomas’ and senior clinical lecturer at King’s College London, added: “This research shows that they are actually more involved with cancer than was once believed and actually dissolve head and neck cancers But for this, it must be said that they are also responsible for making some cancers, such as those in the bowel, aggressive. ” 
 
He said: In the context of the observed research in the domain of colorectal cancer, the researches concluded that such bacteria are pathogenic, and this, as it were, became a kind of a paradigm implanted in the minds of the researchers and they were expecting to find the same, when they have been actually brutally surprised when finding opposite. 
 
Dr Reis Ferreira said that before lab work by Dr Anjali Chander, the team anticipated Fusobacterium to promote these cancers to the sort to grow or make them even more resistant to radiotherapy. However, they discovered it “at the end of a few days, it just annihilates the cancer entirely. ” 
 
And so low dose it, he said, into the cancer and it immediately begins killing it very rapidly. 
 
“And then we got the validation cohort in collaboration with a Milanese group through (researcher) Tiziana Rancati. 
 
‘A eureka moment’ 
 
Dr Anjali Chander, a senior clinical research fellow at King’s College London and lead author, added: The outcomes reported in the study can be recommended as rather impressive, which is quite striking. 
 
“It was eureka moment, to know that other international colleagues also get data which supported our discovery. ” 
 
Dr Reis Ferreira added: “What it could mean is that the intensity of the treatment i. e. , the kind of bacteria that is cultured in the urine could be used to determine which patients have a better or worse prognosis and depending on that one could change the treatment modality to be less harsh in patients who are likely to do well, or more aggressive in patients whose chances of the cancers recurring are high. ” 
 
The finding is summarized in the paper in the journal Cancer Communications, in which Fusobacterium is described as “toxic” to head and neck cancer and its presence “may point to a better outcome”. 
 
“Higher Fusobacterium detectability across the tissue samples was significantly with overall survival and disease-specific survival or Cetuximab-treated patients,” the authors stated. 
 
Barbara Kasumu, the executive director of Guy’s Cancer Charity, which helped fund the study, said: “It is our privilege to fund the research by Miguel & Anjali to explore new possibilities of increasing the care for patients with the head and neck cancer. ”