Gut Microbiome Dysbiosis in Patients with Endometrial Cancer vs. Healthy Controls Based on 16S rRNA Gene Sequencing

Study information

Reviewed Marked as Reviewed by KateRasheed on 2025-5-2

study design

case-control

Citation

PMID PubMed identifier for scientific articles.

37294364

DOI Digital object identifier for electronic documents.

10.1007/s00284-023-03361-6

URI Uniform resource identifier for web resources.

Authors

Li Y, Liu G, Gong R, Xi Y

Journal

Current microbiology

Year

2023

Metabolic diseases like obesity, diabetes, and hypertension are considered major risk factors associated with endometrial cancer. Considering that an imbalance in the gut microbiome may lead to metabolic alterations, we hypothesized that alteration in the gut microbioma might be an indirect factor in the development of endometrial cancer. Our aim was to profile the gut microbiota of patients with endometrial cancer compared with healthy controls in this study. Thus, we used 16S rRNA high-throughput gene sequencing on the Illumina NovaSeq platform to profile microbial communities. Fecal samples were collected from 33 endometrial cancer patients (EC group) and 32 healthy controls (N group) between February 2021 and July 2021. The total numbers of operational taxonomic units (OTUs) in the N and EC groups were 28,537 and 18,465, respectively, while the number of OTUs shared by the two groups was 4771. This study was the first to report that the alpha diversity of the gut microbiota was significantly reduced in endometrial cancer patients vs. healthy controls. Also, there was a significant difference in the distribution of microbiome between the two groups: the abundance of Firmicutes, Clostridia, Clostridiales, Ruminococcaceae, Faecalibacterium, and Gemmiger_formicis decreased, while that of Proteobacteria, Gammaproteobacteria, Enterobacteriales, Enterobacteriaceae and Shigella increased significantly in the EC group vs. healthy controls (all p < 0.05). The predominant intestinal microbiota of the endometrial cancer patients was Proteobacteria, Gammaproteobacteria, Enterobacteriales, Enterobacteriaceae, and Shigella. These results imply that adjusting the composition of the gut microbiota and maintaining microbiota homeostasis may be an effective strategy for preventing and treating endometrial cancer.

Experiment 1

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Reviewed Marked as Reviewed by KateRasheed on 2025-5-2

Curated date: 2025/04/16

Curator: MyleeeA

Revision editor(s): MyleeeA, PreciousChijioke

Subjects

Location of subjects: China

Host species Species from which microbiome was sampled. Contact us to have more species added.: Homo sapiens

Body site Anatomical site where microbial samples were extracted from according to the Uber Anatomy Ontology: Feces Cow dung,Cow pat,Droppings,Dung,Excrement,Excreta,Faeces,Fecal material,Fecal matter,Fewmet,Frass,Guano,Matières fécales@fr,Merde@fr,Ordure,Partie de la merde@fr,Piece of shit,Porción de mierda@es,Portion of dung,Portion of excrement,Portion of faeces,Portion of fecal material,Portion of fecal matter,Portion of feces,Portion of guano,Portion of scat,Portionem cacas,Scat,Spoor,Spraint,Stool,Teil der fäkalien@de,Feces,feces

Condition The experimental condition / phenotype studied according to the Experimental Factor Ontology: Endometrial cancer cancer of endometrium,endometrial Ca,endometrial cancer,endometrial neoplasm,endometrium cancer,malignant endometrial neoplasm,malignant endometrium neoplasm,malignant neoplasm of endometrium,neoplasm of endometrium,primary malignant neoplasm of endometrium,tumor of endometrium,Endometrial cancer

Group 0 name Corresponds to the control (unexposed) group for case-control studies: Healthy controls (N)

Group 1 name Corresponds to the case (exposed) group for case-control studies: Endometrial Cancer (EC)

Group 1 definition Diagnostic criteria applied to define the specific condition / phenotype represented in the case (exposed) group: Patients pathologically diagnosed with endometrial cancer (type I endometrial cancer) who received surgical treatment, and their histological type was endometrioid cancer.

Group 0 sample size Number of subjects in the control (unexposed) group: 32

Group 1 sample size Number of subjects in the case (exposed) group: 33

Antibiotics exclusion Number of days without antibiotics usage (if applicable) and other antibiotics-related criteria used to exclude participants (if any): 1 month

Lab analysis

Sequencing type: 16S

16S variable region One or more hypervariable region(s) of the bacterial 16S gene: V3-V4

Sequencing platform Manufacturer and experimental platform used for quantifying microbial abundance: Illumina

Statistical Analysis

Data transformation Data transformation applied to microbial abundance measurements prior to differential abundance testing (if any).: relative abundances

Statistical test: Mann-Whitney (Wilcoxon)

Significance threshold p-value or FDR threshold used for differential abundance testing (if any): 0.05

MHT correction Have statistical tests be corrected for multiple hypothesis testing (MHT)?: No

Alpha Diversity

Shannon Estimator of species richness and species evenness: more weight on species richness: decreased

Chao1 Abundance-based estimator of species richness: decreased

Simpson Estimator of species richness and species evenness: more weight on species evenness: decreased

Richness Number of species: decreased

Signature 1

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Reviewed Marked as Reviewed by KateRasheed on 2025-5-2

Curated date: 2025/04/16

Curator: MyleeeA

Revision editor(s): MyleeeA

Source: Figure 4B

Description: Composition of the gut microbiota and the analysis of species differences at the phylum, class, order, family, genus and species levels between Endometrial cancer and Healthy Controls.

Abundance in Group 1: increased abundance in Endometrial Cancer (EC)

NCBI	Quality Control	Links
Enterobacterales
Enterobacteriaceae
Gammaproteobacteria
Pseudomonadota
Shigella

Revision editor(s): MyleeeA

Signature 2

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Reviewed Marked as Reviewed by KateRasheed on 2025-5-2

Curated date: 2025/04/17

Curator: MyleeeA

Revision editor(s): MyleeeA

Source: Figure 4B

Description: Composition of the gut microbiota and the analysis of species differences at the phylum, class, order, family, genus and species levels between Endometrial cancer and Healthy Controls.

Abundance in Group 1: decreased abundance in Endometrial Cancer (EC)