Race influences the tumour microbiome

Microorganisms are present in tumour cells and immune cells in the tumour microenvironment. Understanding the tumour microbiome is critical as research has implicated specific bacterial species in modulating the response of cancers to chemotherapy, immunotherapy and radiotherapy. Recent studies characterizing the tumour microbiome in large patient cohorts have shown that the range of microbial genera vary depending on the type of tumour, although the effects of patient demographics on the tumour microbiome have not been delineated. Now, in a Letter published in Cell, Luo et al. show that the tumour microbiome is strongly influenced by race. Using data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), the authors examined the influence of gender, age at diagnosis, body mass index (BMI) and race on the tumour abundance of different bacterial genera. The results showed strong differences in the abundance of hundreds of different bacterial genera between European, Asian and African patients, whereas age, gender and BMI showed few associations with the tumour microbiome. Some of these differences were specific to certain cancer types and others were common across several types of cancer. It is not clear whether the associations between race and the microbiome are driven by genetics or other factors such as diet, and further studies with additional clinical data are needed. However, the authors conclude that these findings highlight the need to broaden the race diversity of studies of tumour biology and the tumour microbiome.

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