Bacterial and fungal microbiota differences in cancer and adjacent non-cancerous tissues from patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma

The microbiota plays an important role in carcinogenesis, progression, and treatment response. Recent attention has focused on the association between the microbiota and esophageal squamous cell carcinomas (ESCC). In this study, we analyzed the microbiota by 16S ribosomal RNA gene and internal transcribed space region (ITS) sequencing from paired cancer and adjacent non-cancerous tissues of 41 patients with ESCC. we characterized the intratumor bacterial and fungal microbiota in patients with ESCC and analyzed community distribution, species identification, alpha, and beta diversity analysis, and predicted microbiota function between groups.