Basic Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2022. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. May 14, 2022; 28(18): 1946-1964
Published online May 14, 2022. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v28.i18.1946
Gut mucosal microbiota profiles linked to colorectal cancer recurrence
Rui-Xue Huo, Yi-Jia Wang, Shao-Bin Hou, Wei Wang, Chun-Ze Zhang, Xue-Hua Wan
Rui-Xue Huo, Department of Oncology, Tianjin Union Medical Center, Nankai University, Tianjin 300121, China
Yi-Jia Wang, Laboratory of Oncologic Molecular Medicine, Tianjin Union Medical Center, Nankai University, Tianjin 300121, China
Shao-Bin Hou, Advanced Studies in Genomics, Proteomics and Bioinformatics, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI 96822, United States
Wei Wang, Xue-Hua Wan, TEDA Institute of Biological Sciences and Biotechnology, Nankai University, Tianjin 300457, China
Chun-Ze Zhang, Department of Colorectal Surgery, Tianjin Union Medical Center, Nankai University, Tianjin 300121, China
Chun-Ze Zhang, Tianjin Institute of Coloproctology, Tianjin 300121, China
Author contributions: Wan XH contributed to the conception of the study; Huo RX and Wang YJ contributed significantly to follow-up, analysis and manuscript preparation; Huo RX, Hou SB and Wan XH performed the data analyses and wrote the manuscript; Wang W and Zhang CZ helped perform the analysis with constructive discussions; Zhang CZ collected the samples; All authors have read and approve the final manuscript.
Supported by Tianjin Science and Technology Plan Project, No. 19YFZCSY00170; Tianjin Union Medical Center, No. 2019YJ007; Beijing Medical and Health Foundation, No. F1814B; Key R&D Projects in the Tianjin Science and Technology Pillar Program, No. 19YFZCSY00420; National Key R&D Program of China, No. 2017YFC1700606 and 2017YFC1700604.
Institutional review board statement: The study was reviewed and approved by the Tianjin Union Medical Center Institutional Review Board (Approval No. B31).
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.
Data sharing statement: Technical appendix, statistical code, and dataset available from the corresponding author at xuehua.wan@nankai.edu.cn.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Xue-Hua Wan, PhD, Assistant Professor, Senior Researcher, TEDA Institute of Biological Sciences and Biotechnology, Nankai University, No. 23 Hongda Street, Tianjin 300457, China. xuehua.wan@nankai.edu.cn
Received: December 7, 2021
Peer-review started: December 7, 2021
First decision: January 27, 2022
Revised: February 1, 2022
Accepted: March 25, 2022
Article in press: March 25, 2022
Published online: May 14, 2022
Processing time: 156 Days and 3.7 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND

Emerging evidence links gut microbiota to various human diseases including colorectal cancer (CRC) initiation and development. However, gut microbiota profiles associated with CRC recurrence and patient prognosis are not completely understood yet, especially in a Chinese cohort.

AIM

To investigate the relationship between gut mucosal microbiota profiles and CRC recurrence and patient prognosis.

METHODS

We obtained the composition and structure of gut microbiota collected from 75 patients diagnosed with CRC and 26 healthy controls. The patients were followed up by regular examination to determine whether tumors recurred. Triplet-paired samples from on-tumor, adjacent-tumor and off-tumor sites of patients diagnosed with/without CRC recurrence were analyzed to assess spatial-specific patterns of gut mucosal microbiota by 16S ribosomal RNA sequencing. Next, we carried out bioinformatic analyses, Kaplan-Meier survival analyses and Cox regression analyses to determine the relationship between gut mucosal microbiota profiles and CRC recurrence and patient prognosis.

RESULTS

We observed spatial-specific patterns of gut mucosal microbiota profiles linked to CRC recurrence and patient prognosis. A total of 17 bacterial genera/families were identified as potential biomarkers for CRC recurrence and patient prognosis, including Anaerotruncus, Bacteroidales, Coriobacteriaceae, Dialister, Eubacterium, Fusobacterium, Filifactor, Gemella, Haemophilus, Mogibacteriazeae, Pyramidobacter, Parvimonas, Porphyromonadaceae, Slackia, Schwartzia, TG5 and Treponema.

CONCLUSION

Our work suggests that intestinal microbiota can serve as biomarkers to predict the risk of CRC recurrence and patient death.

Keywords: Gut microbiota; Colorectal cancer; Prognosis; Colorectal cancer recurrence; Biomarker; 16S rRNA sequencing analysis

Core Tip: Emerging evidence indicates that besides genetic and epigenetic factors, the gut microbiota is capable of driving colorectal cancer (CRC) progression. Here, we analyzed the gut mucosal microbiota of 75 triplet-paired samples collected from on-tumor, adjacent-tumor and off-tumor sites of patients diagnosed with/without CRC recurrence and 26 healthy controls. After a long-term follow-up, we identified spatial-specific bacterial taxa whose abundances are associated with overall survival and disease-free survival. Our data reveal the profiles of gut mucosal microbiota that increase risk of CRC recurrence and affect patient prognosis, which may serve as potential new biomarkers for CRC diagnosis.