Association of gut microbiomes with lung and esophageal cancer: a pilot study

Gut microbiota, especially human pathogens, has been shown to be involved in the occurrence and development of cancer. Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma and lung cancer are two malignant cancers, and their relationship with gut microbiota is still unclear. Virulence factor database (VFDB) is an integrated and comprehensive online resource for curating information about human pathogens. Here, based on VFDB database, we analyzed the differences of bacteria at genus level in the gut of patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma, lung cancer, and healthy controls. We proposed the possible cancer-associated bacteria in gut and put forward their possible effects. Apart from this, principal coordinate analysis (PCoA) and analysis of similarities (ANSOIM) suggested that some bacteria in the gut can be used as potential biomarkers to screen esophageal squamous cell carcinoma and lung cancer, and their effectiveness was preliminary verified. The relative abundance of Klebsiella and Streptococcus can be used to distinguish patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma and lung cancer from healthy controls. The absolute abundance of Klebsiella can further distinguish patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma from patients with lung cancer. In particular, the relative abundance of Fusobacterium can directly distinguish between patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma and healthy controls. Additionally, the absolute abundance of Haemophilus can distinguish lung cancer from healthy controls. Our study provided a new way based on VFDB database to explore the relationship between gut microbiota and cancer, and initially proposed a feasible cancer screening method.