Shotgun metagenomics reveals Bacteroides stercoris as a fecal biomarker depleted in late-stage hepatocellular carcinoma

Simultaneous study of the gut and the liver is promising for a better understanding of hepatic malignancies, since both organs communicate through the gut-liver axis. Gut Microbiota (GM), which under normal circumstances contributes to the host homeostasis, may become dysbiotic, which can in turn contribute to liver inflammation. Prolonged liver inflammation in cirrhotic patients, for example due to gut-liver translocation and/or alcohol exposure, can lead to the development of Hepatocellular Carcinoma (HCC), the most frequent form of primary liver cancer, which is associated with a poor prognosis especially since it is often diagnosed at a stage too advanced to be curable. In this study, we characterized using shotgun metagenomics the GM of 51 HCC patients included in the prospective French CHIEF cohort in order to elucidate how the GM changes alongside HCC progression. Patients were retrospectively selected from the cohort of the Amiens University Hospital based on the availability of the stool samples and the Barcelona Classification of Liver Cancer (BCLC) of the liver biopsy at the inclusion.