Gastric adenocarcinoma and periodontal disease: A systematic review and meta-analysis*

Background: The oral cavity is a link between of external environment with gastrointestinal tract. Studies are controversial on the presence of Periodontal Disease (PD) and its association with Gastric Adenocarcinoma (GAC). Methods: The authors performed a systematic review and meta-analysis to verify the association between PD and GAC. Six electronic databases were evaluated between 1961 and 2022. Titles and abstracts were reviewed independently according to the eligibility criteria, assessing full texts of selected studies. The quality of the included research was verified using the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale for case-control and cohort studies. Statistical analyses were performed based on fixed and/or random effects models to calculate the summarized Relative Risk (RR) and its 95 % Confidence Interval (95 % CI). Results: There were 639 studies, of which nine articles were included (3 case-controls and 6 cohorts). Overall, the authors identified 1,253 cases of GAC 2,501 controls in case-control studies, and 1,631 patients with GAC enrolled in cohort studies. Patients presenting PD increased the risk of developing GAC by 17 % (RR=1.17; 95 % CI 1.03-1.32), which remained regardless of the diagnostic method for PD, i.e., clinical examination (RR = 1.19; 95 % CI 1.14-1.24) and self-report (RR = 1.34; 95 % CI 1.06-1.69). Moreover, Asian patients (RR=1.17; 95 % CI 1.00-1.36) with PD had a higher risk of having GAC than American and European patients (RR = 1.18; 95 % CI 0.84-1.66). Conclusions: The presence of PD the risk of GAC suggesting that its infectious-inflammatory process of PD may be related to GAC development. Further investigations on the oral-gastric microbiota and its role in the carcinogenesis of gastric cancer should be carried out, and the screening of patients with potential risk for GAC should be considered in the clinical practice of dentists.