The prevalence of non-albicans candida in oral squamous cell carcinoma: a review

The survival rate of oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) has not improved over the past 30 years. Candida albicans has been reported to be the aetiological factor amongst OSCC patients. However, there are limited number of studies that had determined the prevalence of non-albicans Candida (NAC) in OSCC patients compared to C. albicans. Hence, this review aimed to compare the prevalence of C. albicans and non-albicans Candida infections between OSCC patients and healthy individuals. This review was conducted according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) 2015 Guidelines. Various databases which include Scopus, PubMed, Science Direct, Public Library of Science (PLOS) databases, and Google Scholar search engine were searched from January 2016 until April 2021 using the keywords ‘Candida colonisation’ or ‘Candida isolation’ and ‘oral candidiasis’ or ‘oral candidosis’ and ‘oral cancer’ or ‘oral squamous cell carcinoma’. Only the original and English articles were included. Joanna Brigg Institute (JBI) Appraisal Tools was used to assess the relevance and results of the published paper. The searching resulted in 6,275 articles identified (Scopus-14, PubMed- 4344, Science Direct- 434, PLOS- 1330, Google Scholar- 153) but only five articles were included in this study. The study showed that Candida spp. were more prevalent in OSCC patients as compared to healthy individuals. Furthermore, a higher number of NAC were isolated from OSCC patients as compared to C. albicans. C. tropicalis is the most prevalent NAC being isolated from OSCC patients. In conclusion, NAC is more prevalent in OSCC as compared to C. albicans, thus the focus should also be made on NAC in OSCC patients