Liver carcinoma (LC) is a common malignancy worldwide with high morbidity and mortality. Human microbiota has already been reported to be closely associated with LC progression by microbiota-liver axis, but few knowledge is available on the oral microbiota of LC patients, and more attention should be given to evaluation of tongue coat microbial characteristics in clinical LC patients. This paper analyzed the microbial population and its dispersed characteristics in the tongue coat biofilm system to explore the similarities and differences observed in tongue biofilm assessments of LC patients. We found that the microbial diversity of tongue coat was increased in LC patients versus the health control. Bacterial microbial community could be significantly separated between LC patients and health control based on principal components analysis (PCA). The microbial composition was significantly changed, and the taxon differences were analyzed between both groups, including phylum, class, orde

Liver carcinoma (LC) is a common malignancy worldwide with high morbidity and mortality. Human microbiota has already been reported to be closely associated with LC progression by microbiota-liver axis, but few knowledge is available on the oral microbiota of LC patients, and more attention should be given to evaluation of tongue coat microbial characteristics in clinical LC patients. This paper analyzed the microbial population and its dispersed characteristics in the tongue coat biofilm system to explore the similarities and differences observed in tongue biofilm assessments of LC patients. We found that the microbial diversity of tongue coat was increased in LC patients versus the health control. Bacterial microbial community could be significantly separated between LC patients and health control based on principal components analysis (PCA). The microbial composition was significantly changed, and the taxon differences were analyzed between both groups, including phylum, class, order, family and genus levels. Bacterial dysbiosis was presented by Lefse and LDA analysis. Importantly, on the genus level, two important bacteria including Oribacterium and Fusobacterium could be used to distinguishing LC patients and health control. These findings provided a novel and non-invasive diagnostic biomarker for liver carcinoma.