The more teeth a smoker loses, the higher the risk that he will develop pancreatic cancer, according to a new study.
The risk of developing pancreatic cancer was 63 percent higher in smokers who had lost all their teeth, compared with those who had lost fewer than 10 teeth, researchers reported in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Overall, the risk of pancreatic cancer in the group was about 6 in 1000.
The study doesn’t show that tooth loss causes pancreatic cancer, the study’s lead author Rachel Z. Stolzenberg-Solomon said in an interview with Reuters Health.
Tooth loss could simply be a marker for some other factor that leads to cancer, said Stolzenberg-Solomon, an investigator in the Nutritional Epidemiology Branch at the National Cancer Institute. For example, she said, tooth loss could simply be a marker for an unhealthy lifestyle.
On the other hand, Stolzenberg-Solomon said, smokers who have lost all their teeth may have more bacteria in their mouths. And this higher level of bacteria in the mouth may lead to higher levels of bacteria in the gut.
“There is a hypothesis that connects bacterial load with pancreatic cancer,” Stolzenberg-Solomon said. “Bacteria in the stomach convert nitrates and nitrites into nitrosamines. And nitrosamines are carcinogens.”
For the new study, Stolzenberg-Solomon and her colleagues examined the medical records of 29,104 male smokers. The men, who were aged 50 to 69 at the start of the study, were followed from 1985 to 1997. They were asked about their dental health at the beginning of the study. By the end of the study, 174 men had developed pancreatic cancer.
After taking age, education, and whether the men lived in a rural or urban environment into account, the researchers found that men were 63 percent more likely to develop pancreatic cancer if they had lost all their teeth.
While the new study doesn’t prove that the conditions that promote tooth loss lead to an elevated cancer risk, it does underscore the importance of good dental hygiene, Stolzenberg-Solomon said.
Studies have shown that the use of dental floss and toothpaste are linked with lower risk of cancers of the mouth and esophagus, she said.
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