Chew on this news.
Scientists may have developed an easy way to stop one of the most aggressive and common forms of head and neck cancer that often starts in the mouth and throat.
And all it would take is popping a piece of bioengineered bean gum.
Accounting for 90% of all head and neck cancers, squamous cell carcinoma is the second most common type of skin cancer in the US.
However, many current treatments have shown limited effectiveness, prompting researchers at the School of Dental Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania to create a better therapy.
The result, published in Scientific Reports, was a bioengineered gum made from lablab beans — a species of bean also known as hyacinth beans — that sharply reduced one virus and two types of bacteria linked to the disease.
Building on previous work creating a chewing gum made from bean gum and containing a naturally antiviral protein FRIL, researchers tested oral samples of patients for three microbes associated with cancer.
These included human papillomavirus (HPV) and two bacterial species, Porphyromonas gingivalis (Pg) and Fusobacterium nucleatum (Fn.)
The increase in mouth and throat cancer has been strongly linked to HPV infection, accounting for 60 to 75% of cases.
High-risk HPV types like HPV 16, HPV 18 and HPV 59 are the most likely to result in squamous carcinoma.
“And Pg and Fn infections worsen survival rates of untreated recurrent or metastatic oral cancer, even after surgery and risk-adjusted adjuvant, or supplemental, therapies,” lead researcher Henry Daniell said in a press release.
The bean gum extracts reduced HPV by 93% in saliva samples and 80% in oral rinse samples.
When protegrin, an antimicrobial peptide that kills harmful bacteria, was added to the gum, a single dose reduced Pg and Fn levels to nearly zero.
Notably, the addition of protegrin also didn’t affect beneficial bacteria found in the mouth, contrasting with radiation therapy, which reduces good bacteria and increases disease-causing yeast.
Researchers believe the gum’s ability to target dangerous microbes while preserving healthy oral microbiome could be useful as an additional therapy along with current treatments or as a preventive measure.
“Our findings support the value of advancing these therapies to clinical trials as adjuvants with current treatments or as prophylaxis to prevent infection and transmission,” Daniell said.
Previous studies have found that daily oral maintenance — regularly brushing and flossing — could drastically reduce the chances of developing head and neck cancers.
These healthy habits could potentially reduce more than a dozen species of bacteria that increase the risk of squamous cell carcinoma.
This came on the heels of the American Cancer Society declaring that 40% of cancer cases and nearly half of cancer deaths in American adults 30 and older could be prevented with a lifestyle change.
