human skin metagenome Raw sequence reads. human skin metagenome

Cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) is the second most common cancer in Australia. The majority of SCCs progress from premalignant actinic keratosis (AK) lesions that form on chronically sun-exposed skin. The role of skin microbiota in this progression is not well understood. We performed a longitudinal microbiome analysis of AKs and SCCs using a cohort of 13 SCC-prone immunocompetent men in order to identify microbial associations to AK and SCC. Up to 12 AK lesions and 6 photo-damaged non-lesional control sites were tracked and sampled with skin swabbing on 10 men at six time points (mostly monthly). Nasal swabs were also taken at each time point. Any SCCs developing on the subjects were swabbed prior to excision (n=32), as well as the perilesional skin for controls (n=29). Three additional subjects were recruited for SCC sampling only.