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A comprehensive analysis of intratumor microbiome in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma

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European Archives of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

Human microbiome has been considered as the second genome of our body. The intratissue/intratumor microbiome analysis is a relatively new field and deserves more attention. In this study, we conducted a comprehensive analysis of microbiome signatures of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSC).

Methods

The intratumor microbiome profiling and clinicopathological information about a total of 177 HNSC samples, including 155 tumors and 22 adjacent normal tissues, were obtained from The Cancer Microbiome Atlas (TCMA) and The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) databases. We identified the microbes that differed between tumors and normal tissues, and assessed their utility values as diagnostic biomarkers. The microbiome signatures under different conditions of clinicopathological parameters were also analyzed.

Results

The intratissue microbiome profiles differed between tumor and normal samples of HNSC. The composition of four, six, and six microbes changed in tumors compared to normal tissues at the phylum, order, and genus levels, respectively (P < 0.05). Eight of the differential microbes performed well in distinguishing tumors from normal tissues (AUC > 0.7, P ≤ 0.001). The microbiome signature was found to be associated with tumor clinicopathological characteristics such as host-gender, host-age, tumor stage, and neoplasm histologic grade.

Conclusion

Overall, our results revealed an intratissue microbiome signature of HNSC. We concluded that the intratumor microbiome signature may also reflect human biology in both healthy and disease status, and provide novel perspective for microbiota research about their roles in tumors.

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Funding

This work was supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities of Northwestern Polytechnical University (G2020KY0516), Shaanxi Provincial Key Research and Development Program (2021SF-030).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Electronics and Information, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an, China

    Yangyang Wang

  2. School of Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Engineering, Hebei University of Science and Technology, Shijiazhuang, China

    Yi Wang

  3. Institute of Medical Research, Northwestern Polytechnical University, 127 West Youyi Road, Xi’an, 710072, Shaanxi, China

    Jihan Wang

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  1. Yangyang Wang
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Contributions

YW, data collection and analysis, drafting the paper, agree to be accountable. YW, data analysis, revised the manuscript, agree to be accountable. JW, data analysis, drafting and critical review, final approval, agree to be accountable.

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Correspondence to Jihan Wang.

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The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Ethical approval

This study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of Institute of Medical Research, Northwestern Polytechnical University.

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Wang, Y., Wang, Y. & Wang, J. A comprehensive analysis of intratumor microbiome in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma. Eur Arch Otorhinolaryngol 279, 4127–4136 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00405-022-07284-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00405-022-07284-z

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