Staphylococcus aureusand Squamous Cell Carcinoma of the Skin

Abstract

Squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of the skin is a tumor with greatly increased incidence among immunosuppressed patients; therefore, an infectious cause of SCC has long been sought. We performed a hospital-based case-control study of Staphylococcus aureus and biopsies of SCC (n = 82), basal cell carcinoma (n = 142), actinic keratosis (n = 57), and seborrhoeic keratosis (n = 72) in comparison with biopsies from healthy skin of these 353 immunocompetent patients. In a S. aureusspecific PCR, targeting the nuc gene, presence of S. aureus DNA was strongly associated with SCC (29.3% positive specimens; adjusted odds ratio, 6.23; 95% confidence interval, 3.10-12.53) compared with healthy skin (5.7% positive specimens). There was also a tendency for association of S. aureus with actinic keratosis, but no association was found for basal cell carcinoma or seborrhoeic keratosis. Analysis using cotton swab samples taken on top of the lesions and from healthy skin gave similar results (adjusted odds ratio for SCC compared with healthy skin, 2.67; 95% confidence interval, 1.47-4.83). In conclusion, there is a strong association between SCC and presence of S. aureus. The study design used cannot determine whether the association implies that presence of S. aureus might influence carcinogenesis or whether it may imply that SCC has an increased susceptibility to S. aureus colonization. (Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2009;18(2):472 -8)

High-risk human papillomavirus in non-melanoma skin lesions from renal allograft recipients and immunocompetent patients

“…The prevalence of S. aureus has been reported to be higher in skin SCC than in BCC or normal skin (Kullander et al , 2009). In our cohort, S. aureus DNA was detected in over 30% of invasive SCC and SCC in situ and, less frequently, in BCC.…”

“…Staphylococcus aureus was detected by PCR amplification of the S. aureus nuc gene using previously published primers, forward 5′-GCGATTGATGGTGATACGGTT-3′ and reverse 5′-AGCCAAGCCTTGACGAACTAAAGC-3′, resulting in a 263-bp product (Brakstad et al , 1992; Kullander et al , 2009). PCR products were further analysed by DNA sequencing to confirm the nuc gene sequence.…”

“…Therefore, in addition to HR-HPV DNA prevalence, the presence of Staphylococcus aureus infection in the skin lesions was investigated. A significant association of S. aureus infection with SCC of the skin has been recently reported (Kullander et al , 2009). Although a causal role of S. aureus infection in development or progression of NMSC is not proven, the finding warrants further investigation, especially in multiple tumours from transplant recipients.…”

Phenolic profile, antibacterial, antimutagenic and antitumour evaluation of Veronica urticifolia Jacq.

“…Bacteria have been linked to cancer by two mechanisms: induction of chronic inflammation and production of carcinogenesis. The staphylococcal α-toxin has been shown to activate both several cytokines which have been linked to all steps in tumor development and nuclear factor κB, known tumor promoter in the development of hepatocellular carcinoma (Kullander et al, 2009). …”

Growth and adherence of Staphylococcus aureus were enhanced through the PGE2 produced by the activated COX-2/PGE2 pathway of infected oral epithelial cells

“…The transcriptional results of fnbpA and fnbpB indicated that PGE 2 can in part regulate the transcription of genes coding for fibronectin-binding proteins.Several observations supported that S . aureus colonization is significantly higher in some cancer patients than that in the healthy [62–64] and COX-2 appears as frequently upregulated in tumor cells [65,66]. Take the Cutaneous T-cell lymphomas (CTCL) as an example, COX-2 expression has recently been proven in CTCL cells, and treatment with the selective COX-2 inhibitor celecoxib resulted in decreased cell growth and viability [66].…”