The skin microbiome in skin cancer progression

The skin microbiome plays a critical role in skin homeostasis and disorders. UV-radiation is the major cause for nonmelanoma skin cancer, but the microbiome might be an additional, unexplored risk factor and potential disease biomarker. We collected and sequenced skin swabs from patients with actinic keratosis (AK) and squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) as well as healthy control individuals. The idea was to identify microbial biomarkers for cancer-precursor AK and malignant SCC to gain understanding of the potential microbial component contributing to skin carcinogenesis.