Fecal Bacteria as Non-Invasive Biomarkers for Colorectal Adenocarcinoma

Colorectal adenocarcinoma (CRC) ranks one of the five most lethal malignant tumors both in China and worldwide. Early diagnosis and treatment of CRC could substantially increase the survival rate. Emerging evidence has revealed the importance of gut microbiome on CRC, thus fecal microbial community could be termed as a potential screen for non-invasive diagnosis. Importantly, few numbers of bacteria genus as non-invasive biomarkers with high sensitivity and specificity causing less cost would be benefitted more in clinical compared with the whole microbial community analysis. Here we analyzed the gut microbiome between CRC patients and healthy people using 16s rRNA sequencing showing the divergence of microbial composition between case and control. Furthermore, ExtraTrees classifier was performed for the classification of CRC gut microbiome and heathy control, and 13 bacteria were screened as biomarkers for CRC. In addition, 13 biomarkers including 12 bacteria genera and FOBT showed an outstanding sensitivity and specificity for discrimination of CRC patients from healthy controls. This method could be used as a non-invasive method for CRC early diagnosis.

Automated summary

CRC is one of the top five lethal malignant tumors globally and in China, and early diagnosis and treatment are crucial for improving survival rates. The gut microbiome could serve as a potential non-invasive screening tool for CRC, with a few specific bacteria genus identified as effective biomarkers for clinical use. Analysis of gut microbiome composition in CRC patients versus healthy controls showed significant differences, with 13 bacteria identified as biomarkers with high sensitivity and specificity for discriminating CRC patients. This method has the potential to be a non-invasive approach for early diagnosis of CRC.