The microbiome types of colorectal tissue are potentially associated with the prognosis of patients with colorectal cancer

Yixin Xu; Jing Zhao; Yu Ma; Jia Liu; Yingying Cui; Yuqing Yuan; Chenxi Xiang; Dongshen Ma; Hui Liu

doi:10.3389/fmicb.2023.1100873

The microbiome types of colorectal tissue are potentially associated with the prognosis of patients with colorectal cancer

Front Microbiol. 2023 Mar 21:14:1100873. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2023.1100873. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Yixin Xu¹, Jing Zhao², Yu Ma³, Jia Liu², Yingying Cui², Yuqing Yuan², Chenxi Xiang², Dongshen Ma², Hui Liu^{2

3}

Affiliations

¹ Department of General Surgery, The Affiliated Hospital of Xuzhou Medical University, Xuzhou, Jiangsu, China.
² Department of Pathology, The Affiliated Hospital of Xuzhou Medical University, Xuzhou, Jiangsu, China.
³ Department of Pathology, Xuzhou Medical University, Xuzhou, Jiangsu, China.

Abstract

As the second leading cause of cancer worldwide, colorectal cancer (CRC) is associated with a poor prognosis. Although recent studies have explored prognostic markers in patients with CRC, whether tissue microbes carry prognostic information remains unknown. Here, by assessing the colorectal tissue microbes of 533 CRC patients, we found that Proteobacteria (43.5%), Firmicutes (25.3%), and Actinobacteria (23.0%) dominated the colorectal tissue microbiota, which was different from the gut microbiota. Moreover, two clear clusters were obtained by clustering based on the tissue microbes across all samples. By comparison, the relative abundances of Proteobacteria and Bacteroidetes in cluster 1 were significantly higher than those in cluster 2; while compared with cluster 1, Firmicutes and Actinobacteria were more abundant in cluster 2. In addition, the Firmicutes/Bacteroidetes ratios in cluster 1 were significantly lower than those in cluster 2. Further, compared with cluster 2, patients in cluster 1 had relatively poor survival (Log-rank test, p = 0.0067). By correlating tissue microbes with patient survival, we found that the relative abundance of dominant phyla, including Proteobacteria, Firmicutes, and Bacteroidetes, was significantly associated with survival in CRC patients. Besides, the co-occurrence network of tissue microbes at the phylum level of cluster 2 was more complicated than that of cluster 1. Lastly, we detected some pathogenic bacteria enriched in cluster 1 that promote the development of CRC, thus leading to poor survival. In contrast, cluster 2 showed significant increases in the abundance of some probiotics and genera that resist cancer development. Altogether, this study provides the first evidence that the tissue microbiome of CRC patients carries prognostic information and can help design approaches for clinically evaluating the survival of CRC patients.

Keywords: colorectal cancer; pathogenic bacteria; prognostic biomarkers; survival; tissue microbe.