Distinct respiratory microbiota associates with lung cancer clinicopathological characteristics

Commensal microbiota dysbiosis is associated with the development of lung cancer. Current studies yield mixed results regarding the respiratory microbiota composition of lung cancer patients. This study analyzed microbiota in surgically removed tumor tissue from 75 non-small cell lung cancer patients and lesion tissue from 7 patients with benign pulmonary diseases. Bacterial relative abundance and diversity of lung microbiota showed significant differences among lung cancer of different pathology and benign pulmonary diseases. In contrast, diversity differences were not observed among lung cancer in different stages. Distinct bacterial taxon composition was found among lung cancer of different pathology and benign pulmonary diseases. The study also generated a discriminant model based on bacterial genera to effectively distinguish lung squamous cell carcinoma from lung adenocarcinoma. Our results confirmed that significant differential respiratory microbiome taxonomy, abundance, diversity, and correlation network are associated with lung cancer of different pathology and some stages. A new 30 bacterial taxa signature prediction model is developed for the effective classification of NSCLC of different pathology.