2025-08-14 カリフォルニア大学サンディエゴ校(UCSD)
<関連情報>
- https://today.ucsd.edu/story/a-microbial-dna-signature-differentiates-two-types-of-cancer-in-the-liver
- https://egastroenterology.bmj.com/content/3/3/e100193
血液中の微生物DNAシグネチャは、肝細胞癌と転移性病変を区別する
Blood microbial DNA signature differentiates hepatocellular carcinoma from metastatic lesions
Caitlin Guccione,Ana Carolina Dantas Machado,Fady Youssef,Isabella Angeli-Pahim,…
eGastroenterology Published:14 August 2025
The microbiome, particularly the composition and diversity of microbial communities within various tissues, influences cancer development, progression and therapy response across various malignancies.1–5 Understanding specific microbial signatures associated with cancers, termed the oncobiome, is crucial for advancing diagnostic and therapeutic strategies.
Analysis of microbial reads from whole-genome sequencing data of blood and tissue samples from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) identified microbial communities distinguishing hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) from non-cancerous tissue and other cancers.2 These findings are robust across multiple rigorous analysis pipelines. Additionally, circulating microbiome DNA has shown promise as a biomarker for early lung cancer diagnosis and recurrence, suggesting the viability of blood-based microbial detection platforms.2 Furthermore, recent research on metastatic tissues indicated microbial communities align more closely with the metastatic site rather than the primary cancer origin, though this was not evaluated in blood.1
However, significant challenges remain for microbial cell-free DNA (cfDNA) to effectively distinguish primary from secondary liver tumours. Previous studies have not demonstrated if microbial cfDNA differentiates between HCC and metastatic liver tumours. Additionally, hepatitis B virus (HBV) DNA contamination limited the ability to clearly separate HCC from non-HCC samples. Thus, it remains uncertain whether liver cancers share a common microbial cfDNA profile or if primary liver cancers possess a distinct signature. In this study, we apply shotgun metagenomics to cfDNA to identify unique blood-based bacterial signatures that differentiate HCC from metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC).
