Paper Title
Evidence of Microbial Biofilm in Human Oral Carcinomas from Chhattisgarh Province of India

Abstract
Any neoplastic tissue growth in the oral cavity is known as oral cancer. It comprises an abnormal mass of cells and its unrestrained growth in mouth. Growth of the microflora on oral carcinoma surfaces may lead to both local and systemic infections, which may complicate the morbidity of the patient suffering from oral malignant neoplasms. Thus, anticancer therapy, irradiation, chemotherapy or surgery impairs the defence mechanism of the oral mucosa and is accompanied by the proliferation of the mucosal biofilm with overgrowth of yeast and bacteria. This study investigated the microbial contents and biofilms present on the surfaces of oral squamous cell carcinomas. Biofilm samples were obtained from the central surface of the lesions and from contiguous healthy mucosa of the same patients from Chhattisgarh state of India, before any antibiotic therapy or any tumour treatment. Samples were transferred to selective media for further study. The average number of anaerobic colony forming units (CFU/ml) at the tumour sites (1.8 x 107) was significantly higher than for the healthy (control). Microbial biofilm was observed in electron microscopy study at tumour site and various microbial species (gram positive bacteria, gram negative bacteria, yeast) were found. It was concluded that human oral carcinoma surface biofilms harbour significantly numbers of microbes as compared with the healthy mucosal surface of the same patient. This finding must be considered in relation to known predisposition of such patients to systemic infections, and to the unpleasant complications of oral morbidity due to infected lesions. The findings further indicated that in addition to any other oral focus, the lesion itself should receive direct antimicrobial treatment so as to reduce the patient morbidity and enhance oral hygiene & quality of life.