Candidal carriage, isolation and species variation in patients undergoing radiotherapy and chemotherapy for head and neck tumours

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Background: Opportunistic fungal infections, mainly candidiasis, is common in immunocompromised patients such as those undergoing chemo or radiatiotherapy and pose a great threat. Hence this study was done, attempting to find out the candidal carrier state and species variation, in such patients. Aims and Objectives: To determine the prevalence and speciation of Candida colonizing in the oral cavity of individuals attending to the cancer clinics in south India. Materials and Methods: Study groups comprised of 50 healthy, asymptomatic individuals as controls (Group I); 50 patients on : chemotherapy (Group - II) and 50 patients undergoing radiotherapy for head and neck cancers (Group - III). Mycological tests for the candidal isolation and speciation were done. Results: A total of 49 cases showed candidal culture positivity (32.67%). Candidal carriage was highest in Group II and Group III (38%). C. albicans was the most prevalent species (30%). The culture positivity and the colony forming unit/ml from the subjects of control group and the study group were highly significant, in pair-wise comparisons. Conclusion: Patients undergoing chemotherapy and radiotherapy for head and neck cancers are at a risk of developing oral candidiasis due to immunosuppression. C . albicans is the predominant isolate, but non-albicans species are also emerging as opportunistic pathogens. All may cause a similar spectrum of disease but differences in disease severity and antifungal susceptibility are noted. Hence, speciation can help to target the treatment of the disease in a much better way.