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Published on: February 28, 2018
Characterization of Gut Microbiome Composition in Patients with Triple-Negative Breast Cancer Treated with
Grazia Vernaci1, Edoardo Vincenzo Savarino2,3, Ilaria Patuzzi4
1Medical Oncology 2, Veneto Institute of Oncology IOV-IRCCS, Padova, Italy.
Introduction:
Patients with triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) achieving a pathological complete response (pCR) after neoadjuvant chemotherapy have a better event-free survival. The role of gut microbiome in early TNBC is underexplored.
Methods:
Microbiome was analyzed by 16SrRNA sequencing.
Results:
Twenty-five patients with TNBC treated with neoadjuvant anthracycline/taxane-based chemotherapy were included. Fifty-six percent achieved a pCR. Fecal samples were collected before (t0), at 1 (t1), and 8 weeks (t2) from chemotherapy. Overall, 68/75 samples (90.7%) were suitable for microbiome analysis. At t0, pCR group showed a significantly higher α-diversity as compared with no-pCR, (P = .049). The PERMANOVA test on β-diversity highlighted a significant difference in terms of BMI (P = 0.039). Among patients with available matched samples at t0 and t1, no significant variation in microbiome composition was reported over time.
Conclusions:
Fecal microbiome analysis in early TNBC is feasible and deserves further investigation in order to unravel its complex correlation with immunity and cancer.
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