Faecal Microbiota Composition Varies between Patients with Breast Cancer and Healthy Women: A Comparative Case-Control Study

• Main Authors: Christine Bobin-Dubigeon, Huyen Trang Luu, Sébastien Leuillet, Sidonie N. Lavergne, Thomas Carton, Françoise Le Vacon, Catherine Michel, Hassane Nazih, Jean-Marie Bard
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2021-08-01
• Series: Nutrients
• Subjects: microbiota; breast cancer; healthy women; 16S rRNA; metabarcoding analyses; qPCR
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/13/8/2705

The intestinal microbiota plays an essential role in many diseases, such as obesity, irritable bowel disease (IBD), and cancer. This study aimed to characterize the faecal microbiota from early-stage breast cancer (BC) patients and healthy controls. Faeces from newly diagnosed breast cancer patients, mainly for an invasive carcinoma of no specific type (HR⁺ and HER2⁻), before any therapeutic treatment and healthy controls were collected for metabarcoding analyses. We show that the Shannon index, used as an index of diversity, was statistically lower in the BC group compared to that of controls. This work highlights a reduction of microbial diversity, a relative enrichment in Firmicutes, as well as a depletion in Bacteroidetes in patients diagnosed with early BC compared to those of healthy women. A tendency towards a decreased relative abundance of <i>Odoribacter</i> sp., <i>Butyricimonas</i> sp., and <i>Coprococcus</i> sp. was observed. This preliminary study suggests that breast cancer patients may differ from healthy subjects in their intestinal bacterial composition.