Abstract Objective: The objective of this study was to investigate the differences in oral microbiota among patients with pancreatic cancer (PC) with different traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) syndromes and to explore the potential connection with tongue diagnosis. Materials and Methods: A total of 61 patients with PC, including three types of TCM syndromes and 11 healthy volunteers, participated in the study. Saliva samples were collected to analyze the oral microbiota using 16S rDNA sequencing. Tongue images were captured simultaneously to extract color parameters using the CIELAB color model. Results: Increased alpha diversity of oral microbial species in patients with spleen deficiency dampness retention syndrome (SDDRS) compared to healthy controls. We found that patients with damp-heat smoldering syndrome had higher b * values for tongue coating, and the primary differential bacterial genus was Rothia. Patients with SDDRS had higher L * and lower a * values on the tongue body, and the primary differential bacterial genera were Prevotella, Muribaculaceae, and Veillonellaceae. Patients with qi and blood stagnation syndrome had lower b * values for both the tongue body and coating, whereas the primary differential bacterial genera were Saccharimonadaceae, Ralstonia, Stenotrophomonas, Acholeplasma, Caproiciproducens, Ruminococcus, Propionivibrio, Bulleidia, RikenellaceaeRC9gutgroup, and Clostridiumₛensuₛtricto₁. Conclusions: Differences in the structures of the oral microbiota exist between patients with PC and healthy individuals. Patients with PC had different oral bacterial genera among the different TCM syndromes, and they were correlated with tongue color parameters.
Chen et al. (Thu,) studied this question.
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