[Long-term survival of personalized surgical treatment of locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer based on molecular staging]

Microbiota modulate lung squamous cell carcinoma lymph node metastasis through microbiota-geneset correlation network

BACKGROUND

The tumor-resident microbiota in lung squamous cell carcinoma (LUSC) has been reported to be associated with the initiation and progression of cancer. And the gut microbiome can modulate the efficacy of immunotherapies. However, it remains to be understood whether the tumor-resident microbiome promotes lymph node (LN) metastasis, which is important for clinical decision-making and prediction of a patient's prognosis. To investigate the potential role of tumor-resident microbiota in LN metastasis, we worked on the microbiota-geneset interaction profiles to characterize the molecular pathogenesis.

METHODS

RNA sequencing data and their matched clinical and genomic information were obtained from The Cancer Genome Atlas database. The matched microorganism quantification data were accessed via the cBioPortal database. The mutational signature analysis, transcriptome analysis, gene set enrichment analysis, immune infiltration, and microbiota-geneset network analysis were performed.

RESULTS

In this paper, we identified the tumor microbiota composition and microbial biomarkers in patients with and without LN metastases. In addition, significantly upregulated gene sets characterize the transcript profiles of patients with LN metastases, for example, Myc Targets, E2F Targets, G2M Checkpoint, Mitotic Spindle, DNA Repair, and Oxidative Phosphorylation. Finally, we found that Proteus and Bacteroides were strongly correlated with gene sets related to tumor development and energy metabolism in the networks of patients with LN metastases.

CONCLUSIONS

We found the associations between intratumor microbiota and transcripts. Our results shed light on the correlation network of Proteus and Bacteroides, which may serve as a novel strategy for modulating LN metastasis.

Lymph node metastasis in lung squamous cell carcinoma and identification of metastasis-related genes based on the Cancer Genome Atlas

Squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) is a unique clinical and histological category that accounts for about 30% of total lung cancer. To identify risk factors for lymph node metastasis and analyze the molecular features of these metastases in lung SCC, a retrospective study was performed for 170 lung SCC patients who underwent surgical treatment. The overall survival of these patients with or without lymph node metastasis (LM/NLM) was analyzed using the Kaplan‐Meier method. We also used the TCGA database to compare the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in patients with stage T1‐2 and T3‐4 lung SCC. Data from both our retrospective study and the TCGA database demonstrated a correlation between age and stage T1‐T2 LM (P = .002). There were significant differences between the LM and NLM groups in both mean survival time and median survival time for different T‐stages (P = .031). There were 176 upregulated and 177 downregulated DEGs between the LM and NLM groups in the stage T1‐2 group and 93 upregulated and 34 downregulated DEGs in the stage T3‐T4 group. These differentially expressed genes were predicted to participate in five cellular components, five molecular functions, and five biological processes. There were 20 genes, including GCG, CASR, NPY, CGA, TAC1, ALB, APOA1, CRH, CHRH, TRH, and GHSR, located at the core of the protein‐protein interaction network in the stage T1‐2 group and 11 genes, including F2, CASR, GRM1, GNRHR, GRPR, NTSR1, PROKR2, UTS2D, PTH, ALB, and FGA, in the stage T3‐4 group. Overall, LM plays a key role in the treatment response and prognosis of SCC patients. Several risk factors, including age and stage, were identified for LM. There was a previously undiscovered enrichment of significant novel genes in lung SCC between the LM and NLM groups, which may have the potential for predicting prognosis and targeting.

[The prognostic value of micrometastasis in non-small cell lung cancer]

肺癌是我国目前发病率和死亡率最高的恶性肿瘤。非小细胞肺癌（non-small cell lung cancer, NSCLC）占肺癌的80%-85%。诊断时的分期是NSCLC主要的预后因子，也是治疗模式选择的重要依据。然而，完全性切除术后的Ⅰ期的NSCLC仍有25%-30%的复发率。这部分复发的患者可能早期就存在局部和（或）远处的隐匿性转移。因此，很多研究开始对NSCLC患者进行微转移的检测，并评估其预后价值。本文总结了近年来的相关研究，并就NSCLC的淋巴结微转移、骨髓微转移、胸膜腔微转移及外周血微转移的预后作用进行综述。