Intratumoral Microbiota Changes with Tumor Stage and Influences the Immune Signature of Oral Squamous Cell CarcinomaOriginal 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 how the intratumoral microbiota of oral squamous cell carcinoma changes across precancer, early cancer, and late cancer stages, and how these bacteria relate to the tumor immune environment.
How was it studied?
Tissue biopsies from precancer and cancer stages underwent 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing to profile bacterial composition, paired with flow cytometry and immunohistochemistry to characterize intratumoral and systemic immune cells.
What did they find?
Capnocytophaga, Fusobacterium, and Treponema were enriched in cancer tissue, while Streptococcus and Rothia were enriched in precancer tissue. Capnocytophaga distinguished late-stage cancer with high accuracy, Fusobacterium marked early-stage cancer, and the precancer stage showed a dense microbiome-immune network. Tumor infiltration by B cells and CD4+/CD8+ T cells with an effector memory phenotype was observed, but the most abundant tumor bacteria were negatively correlated or unassociated with effector lymphocytes.
Why it matters
The findings suggest the oral tumor microenvironment favors bacteria linked to immunosuppression rather than antitumor immunity, pointing to microbiome modulation as a possible avenue to support immune response against oral cancer.