Comparison of vaginal microbiota in gynecologic cancer patients pre- and post-radiation therapy and healthy women

Study information

Reviewed Marked as Reviewed by Claregrieve1 on 2022/09/29

study design

case-control

Citation

PMID PubMed identifier for scientific articles.

32237205

DOI Digital object identifier for electronic documents.

10.1002/cam4.3027

URI

Authors

Tsementzi D, Pena-Gonzalez A, Bai J, Hu YJ, Patel P, Shelton J, Dolan M, Arluck J, Khanna N, Conrad L, Scott I, Eng TY, Konstantinidis KT, Bruner DW

Journal

Cancer medicine

Year

2020

Keywords:

16S rRNA gene, gynecologic cancer, postmenopausal women, radiation therapy, vaginal microbiota

BACKGROUND: While the importance of commensal microbes in vaginal health is well appreciated, little is known about the effects of gynecological cancer (GynCa) and radiation therapy (RT) on the vaginal microbiome (VM) of postmenopausal women. METHODS: We studied women with GynCa, pre- (N = 65) and post-RT (N = 25) and a group of healthy controls (N = 67) by sequencing the V4 region of the 16S rRNA gene from vaginal swabs and compared the diversity and composition of VMs between the three groups accounting for potential confounding factors in multivariate analysis of variance. RESULTS: Comparisons of cancer vs healthy groups revealed that Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium have significantly higher relative abundance in the healthy group, while the cancer group was enriched in 16 phylogroups associated with bacterial vaginosis (BV) and inflammation, including Sneathia, Prevotella, Peptoniphilus, Fusobacterium, Anaerococcus, Dialister, Moryella, and Peptostreptococcus. In our sample, RT affected the α-diversity and correlated with higher abundance of typically rare VM species, including several members of the Lacnospiraceae family, a taxon previously linked to vaginal dysbiosis. In addition to cancer and treatment modalities, age and vaginal pH were identified as significant parameters that structure the VM. CONCLUSIONS: This is among the first reports identifying VM changes among postmenopausal women with cancer. RT alone seems to affect several phylogroups (12 bacterial genera), while gynecological cancer and its treatment modalities are associated with even greater significant shifts in the vaginal microbiota including the enrichment of opportunistic bacterial pathogens, which warrants further attention.

Experiment 1

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Reviewed Marked as Reviewed by Claregrieve1 on 2022/09/29

Curated date: 2021/01/10

Curator: WikiWorks

Revision editor(s): Claregrieve1, WikiWorks, Victoria

Subjects

Location of subjects: United States of America

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: Vagina Vagina,vagina,Distal oviductal region,Distal portion of oviduct,Vaginae

Condition The experimental condition / phenotype studied according to the Experimental Factor Ontology: Genital neoplasm, female cancer of female reproductive organ,female reproductive cancer,female reproductive organ cancer,gynecologic cancer,malignant female reproductive organ neoplasm,malignant female reproductive system neoplasm,malignant female reproductive system tumor,malignant gynecologic neoplasm,malignant gynecologic tumor,malignant neoplasm of female genital organ,malignant neoplasm of female reproductive organ,malignant neoplasm of female reproductive system,malignant neoplasm of the female reproductive system,malignant tumor of female reproductive system,malignant tumor of the female reproductive system,Genital neoplasm, female,genital neoplasm, female

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

Group 1 name Corresponds to the case (exposed) group for case-control studies: women with gynecological cancer

Group 1 definition Diagnostic criteria applied to define the specific condition / phenotype represented in the case (exposed) group: postmenopausal women (naturally or due to hysterectomy) with endometrial or cervical cancer treated with radiotherapy with or without surgery and/or chemotherapy

Group 0 sample size Number of subjects in the control (unexposed) group: 69

Group 1 sample size Number of subjects in the case (exposed) group: 65

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

Lab analysis

Sequencing type: 16S

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

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)?: Yes

LDA Score above Threshold for the linear discriminant analysis (LDA) score for studies using the popular LEfSe tool: 3

Alpha Diversity

Pielou Quantifies how equal the community is numerically: unchanged

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

Chao1 Abundance-based estimator of species richness: increased

Richness Number of species: increased

Signature 1

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Reviewed Marked as Reviewed by Claregrieve1 on 2022/09/29

Curated date: 2021/01/10

Curator: Fatima Zohra

Revision editor(s): Claregrieve1, WikiWorks

Source: Figure 3, Supplemental Figure 2

Description: Differentially abundant bacterial operational taxonomic units between endometrial and cervical cancer and healthy controls

Abundance in Group 1: increased abundance in women with gynecological cancer

NCBI	Quality Control	Links
Anaerococcus
Dialister
Ezakiella
Fusobacterium
Mobiluncus
Moryella
Mycoplasma
Parvimonas
Peptoniphilus
Peptostreptococcus
Porphyromonas
Prevotella
Sneathia
unclassified Leptotrichiaceae