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August 15, 2026Nursing Research

Pilot Study of Oral Microbiome and Psychoneurological Symptom Cluster in Breast Cancer

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Authors

JSJ. SlackEVEmily VogtmannSDSharron L. Docherty

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Overview

Pilot study reveals distinct oral microbiome alterations in breast cancer patients with high psychoneurological symptoms, suggesting bacterial links to symptom severity.

Key Points

  • To evaluate differences in oral microbiome diversity and bacterial composition between women with breast cancer who report high versus low levels of psychoneurological symptoms.
  • Collected oral tongue swabs from N=22 women with breast cancer prior to undergoing mastectomy.
  • Profiled the oral microbiome using 16S rRNA gene sequencing to measure bacterial diversity and relative abundance.
  • Categorized patients into high- and low-symptom groups using PROMIS-29 subscales for fatigue, anxiety, depression, sleep disturbance, and pain interference.
  • Observed amplicon sequence variants were significantly lower in the high-symptom group compared with the low-symptom group, with no differences observed in Shannon diversity, Inverse Simpson diversity, or beta diversity.
  • Differential abundance testing identified three bacterial genera with higher abundance in the high-symptom group: Aggregatibacter, Lautropia, and Prevotellaceae UCG-001.

Cite This Study

Slack et al. (2026) studied this question.

synapsesocial.com/papers/6a8019db75c2e31742c86189https://doi.org/10.1097/nnr.0000000000000939
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Also Consider

Synapse has enriched 5 closely related papers on similar clinical questions. Consider them for comparative context:

  1. 1Assessing mental health, cognitive function and quality of life of breast cancer patients: exploring associations with gut microbiota in an observational and preliminary study2026
  2. 2Probing the oral-brain connection: oral microbiome patterns in a large community cohort with anxiety, depression, and trauma symptoms, and periodontal outcomes2024 · 54 citations
  3. 3Gut and oral microbial community characterization from women with breast cancer, women with ductal carcinoma in situ, and healthy women reveals differences in gut but not oral microbiota2024 · 1 citations
  4. 4Probing the oral-brain connection: Oral microbiome patterns in a large community cohort with anxiety, depression, and trauma symptoms, and periodontal outcomes2024 · 1 citations
  5. 5Gut Microbiome and Psychoneurological Symptoms Among Patients With Colorectal Cancer and Their Caregivers: A Pilot Study2026