Journal of Oral Microbiology

The oral microbiome and cancer: from mechanisms to population-level associations

The oral microbiome (i.e., the bacteria, archaea, fungi, and other microbes living in the oral cavity) is likely involved in multiple health processes and disease development, including the etiology of cancer. In addition, within individuals with cancer, the oral microbiome may be related to treatment response, symptom experience, and survival after diagnosis. However, better understanding and stronger evidence for these associations with cancer risk and survival along with the mechanisms by which the oral microbiome may be involved in the carcinogenic and treatment response are still needed.

Poor oral health and periodontal disease have been observed to be associated with risk of cancers at multiple body sites, but how these conditions are related to cancer risk is unknown. It is possible that these associations are mediated by the oral microbiome, where oral health practices or periodontal disease cause changes in the oral microbiome which then modifies the risk of cancer, or it is possible that the oral microbiome is a proxy for poor oral health or periodontal disease. Given the rapid development of sequencing methodologies and other technologies, such as proteomics, it is possible to fully characterize the oral microbial communities and their byproducts, to better understand the relationship between the oral microbiome and cancer and survival leading to cancer prevention or intervention efforts.

This article collection aims to better understand how the oral microbiome may be related to cancer risk and survival or quality of life after a cancer diagnosis. Epidemiological study designs to assess population-level associations with the oral microbiome and studies of experimental or preclinical models to provide mechanistic evidence for observed associations are of particular interest. Topics for this collection include but not limited to:

• Associations between the oral microbiome (or oral microbiome-associated conditions) and prevalent or incident cancer
• Evaluations of the impact of the oral microbiome (or oral microbiome-associated conditions) on cancer progression, symptomology, or survivorship
• Cross-sectional or longitudinal studies to determine associations between the oral microbiome and cancer risk factors
• Mechanistic evidence for cancer-associated microbes using in vitro, in vivo, and ex vivo experimental models
• Evaluation of oral microbiome-related interventions on cancer prevention, survival, or quality of life parameters.

Keywords

• Oral microbiome
• Cancer
• Mechanisms of carcinogenesis
• Case-control studies
• Cohort studies

­­All manuscripts submitted to this Article Collection will undergo a full peer-review; the Guest Advisor for this Collection will not be handling the manuscripts (unless they are an Editorial Board member).

Please review the journal scope and author submission instructions prior to submitting a manuscript.

The deadline for submitting manuscripts is 31 December 2025.

Please contact Zhiyuan Zhang at zhiyuan.zhang@taylorandfrancis.com with any queries and discount codes regarding this Article Collection.

Please be sure to select the appropriate Article Collection from the drop-down menu in the submission system.

Guest Advisors

Dr. Emily Vogtmann is an Earl Stadtman Investigator in the Metabolic Epidemiology Branch of the Division of Cancer Epidemiology & Genetics at the National Cancer Institute. Her research focuses on: the association between the human microbiome and cancer risk; and evaluation of methods for collection, storage, and processing of samples and data for study of the human microbiome. In particular, Dr. Vogtmann aims to determine how the microbiome may be related to risk of cancers of the breast, colorectum, head/neck, and lung using data from large, population-based, prospective cohort studies.

Dr. Caroline Um is a Senior Principal Scientist in Population Science at the American Cancer Society. Her research focuses on the association between the human microbiome and cancer risk, particularly colorectal and other gastrointestinal cancers. She is also interested in evaluating methods for collection, storage, and processing of samples. She leads the Cancer Prevention Study-3 (CPS-3) Gut & Oral Microbiome Substudy, which has collected over 10,000 paired saliva and fecal samples from participants in the American Cancer Society’s CPS-3 cohort study.