ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Microbiol.
Sec. Microorganisms in Vertebrate Digestive Systems
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2025.1555479
This article is part of the Research TopicUnlocking the Potential of the Microbiome in Cancer TherapyView all articles
Distinct microbiome composition and reduced interactions in patients with pancreatic cancer
Provisionally accepted
Bomi Kim1
Sujin Oh2
Soomin Yang1
Jinwoo Ahn1Kwangrok Jung1Jong-Chan Lee1Jin-Hyeok Hwang1Cheol Min Shin1Hyo-Jung Lee3
Hye Seung Lee4
Jaihwan Kim1*
Kyoung Un Park2,5*- 1Department of Internal Medicine, Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, Seongnam-si, Republic of Korea
- 2Department of Laboratory Medicine, College of Medicine, Seoul National University, Seoul, Seoul, Republic of Korea
- 3Department of Periodontology, Section of Dentistry, Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, Seongnam, Republic of Korea
- 4Department of Pathology, Seoul National University Hospital, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea
- 5Department of Laboratory Medicine, Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, Seongnam-si, Gyeonggi, Republic of Korea
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Introduction: The results of microbiome composition in patients with malignancy have been inconsistent across studies and are affected by various factors. This study aimed to identify microbiome composition of saliva, feces, and blood in patients with pancreatic cancer.Results: Overall, 31 patients with pancreatic cancer and 24 healthy controls were sex-and age-matched.Microbiome analysis of saliva, fecal, and blood samples was conducted using 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing. Baseline characteristics were comparable between patients and controls. Saliva showed insignificant difference in alpha diversity (p = 0.42), whereas feces and blood exhibited a significant difference in Shannon's index (feces: 6.19 vs. 6.52, p = 0.013; blood: 8.00 vs. 7.49, p < 0.001) between patients and controls. Beta diversity analysis revealed significant differences between saliva, fecal, and blood samples (p = 0.014, 0.001, and 0.001, respectively). Distinct microbiome compositions were identified in patients, with higher abundance of Lactobacillus, Enterobacter, and Prevotella in saliva, fecal, and blood samples, respectively. Based on microbial network analysis, patients with pancreatic cancer showed lower clustering coefficient (71% vs. 99%) and higher average path length (1.67 vs. 0.68) than healthy controls, suggesting a more compact network and stronger microbial interactions in healthy controls.Conclusions: This study identified a distinctive microbiome in patients with pancreatic cancer, indicating the presence of Lactobacillus, Enterobacter, and Prevotella. A less condensed and robust microbial interaction network was observed in blood samples of patients with pancreatic cancer. These findings provide a basis for research on the connection between the microbiome and pancreatic cancer.
Keywords: Pancreatic Cancer, microbiome, Saliva, Feces, Blood
Received: 04 Jan 2025; Accepted: 03 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Kim, Oh, Yang, Ahn, Jung, Lee, Hwang, Shin, Lee, Lee, Kim and Park. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Jaihwan Kim, Department of Internal Medicine, Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, Seongnam-si, Republic of Korea
Kyoung Un Park, Department of Laboratory Medicine, College of Medicine, Seoul National University, Seoul, 03080, Seoul, Republic of Korea
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