Gut microbiota profiles in feces and paired tumor and non-tumor tissues from Colorectal Cancer patients. Relationship to the Body Mass IndexOriginal paper
Karen Pendergrass is a microbiome researcher specializing in microbiome-targeted interventions (MBTIs). She systematically analyzes scientific literature to identify microbial patterns, develop hypotheses, and validate interventions. As the founder of the Microbiome Signatures Database, she bridges microbiome research with clinical practice. In 2012, based on her own investigative research, she became the first documented case of FMT for Celiac Disease, four years before the first published case study.
Read MoreWhat was studied?
Researchers examined gut microbiota patterns in feces and paired tumor and non-tumor colorectal tissue from Colorectal Cancer (CRC) patients. They also tested whether microbiota composition relates to patients' Body Mass Index (BMI).
How was it studied?
The team collected 113 samples from 45 subjects with CRC and ran 16S ribosomal RNA gene sequencing on the Ion Torrent platform. LEfSe analysis compared bacterial abundance across sample types, tumor locations, and BMI groups.
What did they find?
Feces and colorectal tissue shared the same dominant phyla, but tumor tissue held a greater proportion of Fusobacteriota. Fusobacterium and Streptococcus were significantly increased in colorectal tissue versus feces, with Fusobacterium most pronounced in tumor tissue. Left-sided colon cancers showed more Staphylococcales, right-sided cancers had more Firmicutes and Spirochaetota, and rectal cancers showed more Proteobacteria. Obese patients had significantly enriched Bacteroidales and different beta diversity than normal-weight patients.
Why it matters
These microbiota patterns tied to tumor location and BMI could support molecular characterization of CRC, aiding future diagnosis and prognosis in obese and non-obese patients.