ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Oncol.
Sec. Gastrointestinal Cancers: Colorectal Cancer
Volume 15 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fonc.2025.1565661
This article is part of the Research TopicGut Microbiota and Local Immune System in Colorectal and Liver CancerView all 6 articles
Gut microbiome with RAS mutation and chemotherapy response in patients with advanced or metastatic colorectal cancer: a pilot, exploratory study
Provisionally accepted
- 1Korea University, Seoul, Republic of Korea
- 2Korea University Anam Hospital, Seoul, Republic of Korea
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This study investigates the relationship between gut microbiome composition and clinical characteristics, including RAS mutation status, smoking history, and chemotherapy response, in patients with locally advanced or metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC).Our study included 17 patients with mCRC undergoing first-line chemotherapy at the Korea University Anam Hospital between 2021 and 2023. Stool samples were collected and 16S rRNA sequencing was performed to analyze the gut microbiome. Our findings revealed significant differences in beta diversity associated with smoking history and the RAS mutation status. Specifically, smoking habits influenced microbiome composition, and non-smokers harbored beneficial bacteria, such as Butyricicoccaceae, Ruminococcaceae, Faecalibacterium, and Lachnospiraceae_NK4A136_group, whereas smokers were associated with Actinomyces and Solobacterium. In RAS-mutated cases, genera, such as Holdemanella, Anaerostipes, and Collinsella were enriched. Notably, chemotherapy responders exhibited a higher prevalence of beneficial bacteria, particularly Lactobacillus, and Bifidobacterium levels were significantly increased in patients with non-progressive disease.These results suggest that the gut microbiome diversity and composition are linked to smoking history, the RAS mutation status, and chemotherapy response, potentially serving as prognostic indicators for mCRC. Our study contributes to the growing body of evidence supporting the role of the gut microbiome in cancer progression and treatment outcomes, highlighting its potential as a guide for personalized therapeutic approaches.We believe that the results of this study will be of special interest to the readers of Frontiers in Oncology.
Keywords: colorectal cancer, gut microbiome, RAS mutation, chemotherapy response, prognosis
Received: 23 Jan 2025; Accepted: 29 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Kim, Kim, Lee, KIM, Kwak and Lee. 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: Soohyeon Lee, Korea University, Seoul, Republic of Korea
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