Table 1.
Baseline characteristics of the study subjects according to the oral candidiasis diagnosis during the chemotherapy cycle. All data represent information collected or measurements taken at baseline, prior to the chemotherapy cycle.
| Variable | No Candidiasis n = 36 |
Oral Candidiasis n = 9 |
Statistic |
|---|---|---|---|
| Age | 57.9 ± 13.6 | 56.6 ± 10.8 | 0.788 * |
| Gender (% male) | 50.0 | 77.8 | 0.260 @ |
| Race (% white) | 86.1 | 100.0 | 0.566 @ |
| Ethnicity (% hispanic) | 5.6 | 0.0 | 1.000 @ |
| Squamous-cell carcinoma (% yes) | 36.1 | 66.7 | 0.137 @ |
| Breast cancer (% yes) | 33.3 | 11.1 | 0.248 @ |
| Adenocarcinoma (% yes) | 25.0 | 11.1 | 0.659 @ |
| Other cancer (% yes) | 5.6 | 11.1 | 0.497 @ |
| Smoking history (% yes) | 58.3 | 100.0 | 0.020 @ |
| Former smoker (% yes) | 55.6 | 33.3 | 0.284 @ |
| Current smoker (% yes) | 2.8 | 66.7 | 0.00007 @ |
| Proton pump inhibitor use (% yes) | 27.8 | 11.1 | 0.416 @ |
| Inhaler steroid use (% yes) | 2.8 | 11.1 | 0.364 @ |
| Steroid premedication prior to V1 (% yes) | 16.7 | 22.2 | 0.651 @ |
| Number of teeth | 26 (0–32) | 21 (0–28) | 0.190 & |
| Prosthetic teeth (% yes) | 77.8 | 77.8 | 1.000 @ |
| Number of teeth replaced by prosthesis | 2 (0–25) | 2 (0–32) | 0.967 & |
| Removable prosthesis (% yes) | 13.9 | 11.1 | 1.000 @ |
| Visible caries lesions (% yes) | 30.6 | 44.4 | 0.454 @ |
| Number of teeth with caries lesions | 0.81 ± 1.5 | 2.56 ± 3.7 | 0.200 * |
| Plaque index | 0.9 (0.0–2.1) | 1.8 (1.0–2.5) | 0.001 & |
Periodontal status (CPITN, %)
|
5.6 2.8 41.7 33.3 13.9 2.8 |
0.0 0.0 22.2 66.7 0 11.1 |
0.322 # |
| Salivary flow rate (mL/min) | 0.39 (0.06–0.93) | 0.42 (0.05–1.46) | 0.625 & |
|
Peripheral absolute neutrophil count (× 1000/mm3 blood) |
5.4 (2.2–16.1) | 12.1 (3.1–18.4) | 0.039 & |
| Oral neutrophil count (× 10,000/rinse) | 44 (6–473) | 24 (6–143) | 0.309 & |
| C. albicans killing by peripheral neutrophils (% killed C. albicans) n = 14 subjects^ | 62.2 (30–82) | 53.5 (30–76) | 0.240 & |
| Bacterial load (16S rRNA copies/mL saliva) | 4.9E+09 ± 4.8E+09 | 2.0E+09 ± 2.1E+09 | 0.104 * |
| Candida load (Candida cells/mL saliva) | 2.5E+03 ± 2.1E+03 | 5.2E+03 ± 9.0E+03 | 0.399 * |
| Salivary bacterial diversity (16S rRNA gene based—np Shannon Index) | 3.2 ± 0.31 | 2.6 ± 0.40 | 0.0001 * |
| Salivary fungal diversity (ITS1 based—np Shannon Index) | 0.99 ± 0.81 | 0.14 ± 0.17 | 0.00001 * |
| Percentage Candida | 27.7 (0.0–99.6) | 98.7 (83.2–99.9) | 0.0005 & |
| Percentage Malassezia | 16.0 (0.0–98.4) | 0.1 (0–15.6) | 0.0007 & |
The distribution of continuous data was tested for normality, using measures of Skewness and Kurtosis and the Shapiro–Wilk test in SPSS. For the normally-distributed continuous variables, mean ± standard deviation is shown. For the non-normally distributed continuous variables, median is shown, with the range in parentheses. Statistical tests for continuous data were applied according to the data distribution. For non-continuous variables, the data shown represent the percentage of subjects that tested positive. ^ Of the 14 subjects included in the C. albicans killing assays, 9 did not present oral candidiasis during the cycle and 5 developed oral candidiasis. # chi-square; @ Fisher’s exact test; & Mann–Whitney U test; * Independent sample t-test. Variables that differed between candidiasis-positive subjects and unaffected individuals are shown in bold.