Distinct bronchial microbiome precedes clinical diagnosis of lung cancer

• Published in: Molecular cancer Vol. 21; no. 1; p. 68
• Main Authors: Marshall, Erin A, Filho, Fernando S L, Sin, Don D, Lam, Stephen, Leung, Janice M, Lam, Wan L
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England BioMed Central Ltd 07-03-2022; BioMed Central; BMC
• Subjects: Bronchoscopy - methods; Cancer; Development and progression; Diagnosis; Early detection; Forecasts and trends; Health aspects; Humans; Letter to the Editor; Liquid Biopsy; Lung; Lung cancer; Lung Neoplasms - diagnosis; Lung Neoplasms - pathology; Medical research; Medicine, Experimental; Microbiome; Microbiota; Microbiota (Symbiotic organisms); Risk prediction; Liquid biopsy; Risk prediction; Lung cancer; Early detection; Microbiome
• ISSN: 1476-4598; 1476-4598
• DOI: 10.1186/s12943-022-01544-6

Resident microbial populations have been detected across solid tumors of diverse origins. Sequencing of the airway microbiota represents an opportunity for establishing a novel omics approach to early detection of lung cancer, as well as risk prediction of cancer development. We hypothesize that bacterial shifts in the pre-malignant lung may be detected in non-cancerous airway liquid biopsies collected during bronchoscopy. We analyzed the airway microbiome profile of near 400 patients: epithelial brushing samples from those with lung cancer, those who developed an incident cancer, and those who do not develop cancer after 10-year follow-up. Using linear discriminate analysis, we define and validate a microbial-based classifier that is able to predict incident cancer in patients before diagnosis with no clinical signs of cancer. Our results demonstrate the potential of using lung microbiome profiling as a method for early detection of lung cancer.