Evidence map›Paper›PMID 41764274›Full record

ArticleCommunications medicine2026

A generalizable cross-continent prediction of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma using the oral microbiome.

Shahd ElNaggar, Wenlong Carl Chen, Leanne M Prodehl, Thomas K Marumo, Muhammed U Khan, Christopher G Mathew, Paul Ruff, Zhezhen Jin, Alfred I Neugut, Anil K Rustgi and 3 more

Abstract read
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In one paragraph

Article in Communications medicine, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

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0citing papers in PubMed
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1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

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Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

0 citing papers in PubMed.

No citing paper in PubMed yet.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

13 authors.

Shahd ElNaggarProgram for Mathematical Genomics, Department of Systems Biology, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York, NY, USA.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1068-1578
Wenlong Carl ChenStrengthening Oncology Services Research Unit, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3248-4906
Leanne M ProdehlSurgical Gastroenterology Unit, Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital, Johannesburg, South Africa.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5458-617X
Thomas K MarumoSurgical Gastroenterology Unit, Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital, Johannesburg, South Africa.
Muhammed U KhanSurgical Gastroenterology Unit, Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital, Johannesburg, South Africa.
Christopher G MathewSydney Brenner Institute for Molecular Bioscience, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4178-1838
Paul RuffSouth African Medical Research Council Common Epithelial Cancer Research Centre, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.
Zhezhen JinDepartment of Biostatistics, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3801-0680
Alfred I NeugutDepartment of Medicine, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York, NY, USA.
Anil K RustgiDepartment of Medicine, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York, NY, USA.
Anne-Catrin UhlemannDepartment of Medicine, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York, NY, USA.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9798-4768
Tal KoremProgram for Mathematical Genomics, Department of Systems Biology, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York, NY, USA. tal.korem@columbia.edu.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0609-0858
Julian A AbramsDepartment of Medicine, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York, NY, USA. ja660@cumc.columbia.edu.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6021-9376

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundEsophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) has a poor prognosis and limited tools for early detection. Saliva is easily accessible and its microbiome composition can serve as a marker for upper gastrointestinal tract disease. This study aims to evaluate the potential of an oral microbiome signature for classifying ESCC.

methodsIn a cross-sectional study of 48 ESCC patients and 110 controls from South Africa, a region with high ESCC incidence, we studied the potential utility of an oral microbiome signature for the disease. We built models using nested cross-validation to evaluate whether this signature is generalizable to held-out samples and further evaluated generalizability in studies from China, a distinct geographic region.

resultsWe find significant alterations in the oral microbiome in patients with ESCC including significantly reduced α diversity and increased abundance of Fusobacterium nucleatum. We also find that logistic regression models based on microbiome data can better classify ESCC in held-out samples (auROC=0.96) compared to clinical and demographic data (auROC = 0.69; DeLong p < 1 x 10

conclusionsOur results show that the oral microbiome in individuals with ESCC is distinct from controls and that this signal can generalize across unseen samples, suggesting the potential of saliva to serve as a non-invasive screening tool for ESCC.

Identifiers

PMID41764274
PMCPMC13066412

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LicenceCC BY-NC-ND
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.