Diverse gut microbiota pattern between mild and severe cancer-related fatigue in lung cancer patients treated with...

Cancer survivors perceive cancer-related fatigue (CRF) as one of the most common symptoms. However, the potential relationship between CRF and gut microbiota has not been elucidated. Our study aimed to preliminary explore the diverse gut microbiota composition between mild and severe CRF in advanced lung cancer patients undergoing first-line chemotherapy.

A total of 20 advanced lung patients treated with first-line chemotherapy were enrolled, 10 with mild CRF and 10 with severe CRF. The self-reported Piper Fatigue Scale and stool samples were collected from all eligible patients. The 16 S ribosomal ribonucleic acid gene was performed to analyze the intestinal microbiome.

We identified the significantly diverse gut microbiota composition among patients with mild and severe CRF. The pattern was characterized by the increasing abundance in short-chain fatty acid-producing taxa for mild CRF patients (genus Lachnospiraceae-UCG-008 and family Lachnospiraceae, p < 0.05), whereas higher abundance in taxa related to inflammation (family Enterobacteriaceae and genus Escherichia-Shigella, p < 0.05) for severe CRF patients. Significantly different Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathways between mild and severe CRF patients were evaluated concerning fatty acid metabolism, nucleotide metabolism, brain function, amino acid metabolism, and so on (p < 0.05).

Our study observed a plausible association between different levels of CRF and the diverse gut microbiota composition, with increasing proinflammation taxa in severe CRF patients and anti-inflammation taxa growing in mild CRF patients. Further studies are warranted to evaluate whether CRF can be improved by modulating the gut microbiota composition.