Research progress of the intratumoral microbiome

Abstract

Intratumoral microbiome is defined as the microbes that reside within tumor tissues to form the tumor microenvironment. Although substantial advances have been made in the research on virus infection and cancer during the past century, little is known about the existence and the role of intratumoral bacteria or fungi in cancer. In recent years, with the development of high-throughput sequencing technology, evidence has emerged to support the existence and functional activity of intratumoral bacteria. This review summarized the recent research progress in intratumoral microbiome, particularly their contribution to the carcinogenesis and chemoresistance of breast cancer, pancreatic cancer and lung cancer. The future perspectives of intratumoral microbiota in clinical application were also discussed.

Keywords

• |cancer|intratumoral microbiome|tumor immune microenvironment|metagenome sequencing