Fecal Fusobacterium nucleatum as a predictor for metachronous colorectal adenoma after endoscopic polypectomy

Fusobacterium nucleatum is increasingly being recognized as an important risk factor in colorectal cancer and colorectal adenoma. Endoscopic polypectomy is associated with a decreased incidence of colorectal cancer; however, patients still suffer from a risk of metachronous adenoma. Currently, there are few effective non-invasive factors that may predict metachronous colorectal adenoma. Here, we evaluated the performance of F. nucleatum in predicting metachronous adenoma.

Fecal samples and clinical information of patients before endoscopic polypectomy were collected from 367 patients in a retrospective cohort, and 238 patients in a prospective cohort. The abundance of fecal F. nucleatum was measured via quantitative polymerase chain reaction. Surveillance colonoscopies were conducted between 1 and 3 years after polypectomy (average follow-up 27.07 months for the retrospective cohort & 22.57 months for the prospective cohort) to identify metachronous adenoma. Candidate predictive factors and cut-off value of F. nucleatum abundance were identified from the retrospective cohort and then validated in the prospective cohort.

A high abundance of fecal F. nucleatum was found to be an independent risk factor for metachronous adenomas (odds ratio, 6.38; P < 0.001) in the retrospective cohort and was validated in the prospective cohort with a specificity of 65.00%, and a sensitivity of 73.04%, and an overall performance with the area under the curve of 0.73.

Fecal abundance of F. nucleatum may be a reliable predictor for metachronous adenoma after endoscopic polypectomy.