The salivary microbiome mirrors tumor type, status and pre-conditions of patients with oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma

The study was carried out at the Department of General Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery and the Department of Internal Medicine, Medical University of Graz, Austria. The study was approved by the local ethics committee (1325/2016) and conducted according to the declaration of Helsinki on Biomedical Research Involving Human Subjects.Study subjects. The study was conceived as a pilot study and included 11 patients {4 females, 8 males, mean age 61.6 (8.2) years} and 12 healthy controls {females, 8 males, mean age 46.7(15.1) years, range 29-66 years}. It involved patients with diagnosed OSCC and SCC of the oral cavity.Sampling procedure. Saliva was collected in patients after primary diagnosis of SCC before any specific treatment including surgery, radiotherapy and chemo(immuno-) therapy was employed.Samples were subjected to DNA extraction, amplification of the 16S rRNA gene, and microbiome analyses.