Year: 2026
Type: preprint
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Summary Cancer is the second leading cause of death worldwide. A large proportion of cancer deaths is associated with modifiable risk factors, such as tobacco use and dietary factors. This highlights the critical role of prevention to reduce cancer deaths, which relies on both identifying individuals at risk and mitigating that risk. Here, we focus on risk stratification by leveraging gut microbiome alterations. Utilizing two cancer discovery cohorts and four general population cohorts across different European countries - encompassing 16,255 individuals, including 3,341 cancer cases - we first establish the existence of common gut microbiome alterations across multiple distinct malignancies (lung, kidney, and breast). We demonstrate that these alterations are conserved in populations from France, Finland, the Netherlands, and Latvia. Crucially, we show that individuals who develop cancer after microbiome sampling (n = 1,642) harbor microbiome alterations similar to those found in clinically diagnosed cancer cases, albeit to a lesser degree. This indicates that the gut microbiome evolves towards a cancer-associated state well before clinical diagnosis. Finally, we demonstrate that the extent of microbiome alterations can effectively stratify both the patients with diagnosed cancer and individuals at elevated cancer risk.
Source: medRxiv
Authors: Giacomo Vitali, Johannes R. Björk, Oleg Kambur, Marine Fidelle, Einar Birkeland, Lindsay Goulet, Emmanuelle Le Chatelier, Yani Ren, Robert Benamouzig, Patrick Veiga, Guido Kroemer, Trine Ballestad Rounge, Barbara Pardini, Teemu Niiranen, Mārcis Leja, Juozas Kupčinskas, Bertrand Routy, Arielle Elkrief, Joana Ribeiro, Lisa Derosa, Nikos Paragios, Jan Baumbach, Leo Lahti, Mathieu Almeida, Rinse K. Weersma, Laurence Zitvogel, Stanislav Dusko Ehrlich
Institutions: Université Paris-Saclay, Institut National de Recherche pour l'Agriculture, l'Alimentation et l'Environnement, MetaGenoPolis, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, University of Turku, University of Eastern Finland, Inserm, Institut Gustave Roussy, University of Oslo, Université Sorbonne Paris Nord, Assistance Publique – Hôpitaux de Paris, Hôpital Avicenne, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Université Paris Cité, Sorbonne Université, Centre de Recherche des Cordeliers, Hôpital Européen Georges-Pompidou, Analyse moléculaire, modélisation et imagerie de la maladie cancéreuse, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Cancer Registry of Norway, Italian institute for Genomic Medicine, Candiolo Cancer Institute, Turku University Hospital, University of Latvia, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Centre Hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal, CentraleSupélec, Universität Hamburg, University of Southern Denmark, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology
Language: English
Topic: Gut microbiota and health
Subfield: Molecular Biology
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: green
Awards: G1007324614, Unraveling the dark matter of infectious diseases, environmental and genetic factors tipping the balance towards NCDs, G1397743473, G1554707310, Biomarkers affecting the transition from cardiovascular disease to lung cancer: towards stratified interception., Federated artificial intelligence for privacy-preserving international stratification of colorectal cancer patients, G2557593843, G2579310621, G2714391379, Verification and validation of a biomarker panel that identifies individuals at high risk to develop Crohn’s disease allowing INTERCEPTION of full-blown disease development, Microbiota-centered interventions to solve antibiotics-induced primary resistance to immune checkpoint inhibitors, G6318841463, Metagenomic and metabolomic mapping and characterization of Large-scale and deeply phenotyped microbiome cohorts in France, G705061367, G7999552054, Pre-analytics harmonization platform
OpenAlex ID: W7212352530