Number of Natural Teeth Linked to Longer Survival After Pancreatic Cancer Surgery

In a single-center investigation, Hiroshima University researchers assessed oral health in 339 consecutive patients undergoing radical pancreatectomy for pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma from 2014 to 2022. Dental examinations recorded the number of natural teeth and posterior occlusion status before surgery. Patients with 21 or more natural teeth experienced a median overall survival of 60.7 months, compared with 39.1 months for those with 20 or fewer teeth.

This association remained significant after controlling for established prognostic variables such as tumor stage, lymph node metastasis, margin status, adjuvant chemotherapy and nutritional indices. The study found that posterior teeth occlusion, a proxy for chewing function, was not an independent predictor of survival, implying that tooth loss may serve as a marker of cumulative inflammation, frailty, nutrition and overall systemic resilience. The authors propose that oral health assessment could become part of personalized risk stratification for pancreatic cancer patients, though they acknowledge the need for larger, multi-center validation.