Comparison of Gut Microbiome in Human Colorectal Cancer in Paired Tumor and Adjacent Normal Tissues

Onco Targets Ther. 2020 Jan 21:13:635-646. doi: 10.2147/OTT.S218004. eCollection 2020.

Abstract

Background: To understand the biological effect of gut microbiome on the progression of colorectal cancer (CRC), we sequenced the V3-V4 region of the 16S rRNA gene to illustrate the overall structure of microbiota in the CRC patients.

Methods: In this study, a total of 66 CRC patients were dichotomized into different groups based on the following characteristics: paired tumor and adjacent normal tissues, distal and proximal CRC segments, MMR (-) and MMR (+), different TNM staging and clinic tumor staging.

Results: By sequencing and comparing the microbial assemblages, our results indicated that 7 microbe genus (Fusobacterium, Faecalibacterium, Akkermansia, Ruminococcus2, Parabacteroides, Streptococcus, and f_Ruminococcaceae) were significantly different between tumor and adjacent normal tissues; and 5 microbe genus (Bacteroides, Fusobacterium, Faecalibacterium, Parabacteroides, and Ruminococcus2) were significantly different between distal and proximal CRC segments; only 2 microbe genus (f_Enterobacteriaceae and Granulicatella) were significantly different between MMR (-) and MMR (+); but there was no significant microbial difference were detected neither in the TNM staging nor in the clinic tumor staging.

Conclusion: All these findings implied a better understanding of the alteration in the gut microbiome, which may offer new insight into diagnosing and therapying for CRC patients.

Keywords: 16S rRNA sequencing; CRC; MMR; TNM staging; colorectal cancer; gut microbiota.