Booth, M.E., Wood, H.M. orcid.org/0000-0003-3009-5904, Travis, M.A. et al. (3 more authors) (2025) The relationship between the gastric cancer microbiome and clinicopathological factors: a metagenomic investigation from the 100,000 genomes project and The Cancer Genome Atlas. Gastric cancer : official journal of the International Gastric Cancer Association and the Japanese Gastric Cancer Association. ISSN 1436-3291
Abstract
Background
Findings from previous gastric cancer microbiome studies have been conflicting, potentially due to patient and/or tumor heterogeneity. The intratumoral gastric cancer microbiome and its relationship with clinicopathological variables have not yet been characterized in detail. We hypothesized that variation in gastric cancer microbial abundance, alpha diversity, and composition is related to clinicopathological characteristics.
Methods
Metagenomic analysis of 529 GC samples was performed, including whole exome sequencing data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and whole genome sequencing data from the 100,000 Genomes Project. Microbial abundance, alpha diversity, and composition were compared across patient age, sex, tumor location, geographic origin, pathological depth of invasion, pathological lymph node status, histological phenotype, microsatellite instability status, and TCGA molecular subtype.
Results
Gastric cancer microbiomes resembled previous results, with Prevotella, Selenomonas, Stomatobaculum, Streptococcus, Lactobacillus, and Lachnospiraceae commonly seen across both cohorts. Within the TCGA cohort, microbial abundance and alpha diversity were greater in gastric cancers with microsatellite instability, lower pathological depth of invasion, intestinal-type histology, and those originating from Asia. Microsatellite instability status was associated with microbiome composition in both cohorts. Sex and pathological depth of invasion were associated with microbiome composition in the TCGA cohort.
Conclusion
The intratumoral gastric cancer microbiome appears to differ according to clinicopathological factors. Certain clinicopathological factors associated with favourable outcomes in gastric cancer were observed to be associated with greater microbial abundance and diversity. This highlights the need for further work to understand the underlying biological mechanisms behind the observed microbiome differences and their potential clinical and therapeutic impact.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
---|---|
Authors/Creators: |
|
Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © The Author(s) 2025. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
Keywords: | Gastric cancer; Gastrointestinal microbiome; Metagenomics |
Dates: |
|
Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Medicine and Health (Leeds) > School of Medicine (Leeds) > Leeds Institute of Medical Research (LIMR) > Division of Pathology and Data Analytics |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number NIHR National Inst Health Research Not Known NIHR National Inst Health Research NIHR200162 Cancer Research UK Supplier No: 138573 A29067 Wellcome Trust R120782 |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 21 Feb 2025 10:47 |
Last Modified: | 21 Feb 2025 10:47 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Springer Nature |
Identification Number: | 10.1007/s10120-025-01588-9 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:223621 |