Retrospective Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2016. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Mar 21, 2016; 22(11): 3227-3233
Published online Mar 21, 2016. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v22.i11.3227
Association of Fusobacterium nucleatum infection with colorectal cancer in Chinese patients
Yu-Yuan Li, Quan-Xing Ge, Jie Cao, Yong-Jian Zhou, Yan-Lei Du, Bo Shen, Yu-Jui Yvonne Wan, Yu-Qiang Nie
Yu-Yuan Li, Quan-Xing Ge, Jie Cao, Yong-Jian Zhou, Yan-Lei Du, Bo Shen, Yu-Qiang Nie, Department of Gastroenterology, Guangzhou First People’s Hospital, Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou 510180, Guangdong Province, China
Yu-Jui Yvonne Wan, Department of Medical Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of California, Davis Health Systems, Sacramento, CA 95817, United States
Author contributions: Li YY, Cao J and Zhou YJ designed the research; Ge QX and Shen B performed the experiments; Wan YJY wrote the paper, and Du YL analyzed the data; Nie YQ supervised all the experimental work and revised the manuscript; all authors read and approved the manuscript.
Supported by The National Clinical Key Institute Foundation of Chinese Health and Family Planning Ministry, No. 2013-544.
Institutional review board statement: The study was reviewed and approved by the Guangzhou First People’s Hospital Institutional Review Board.
Informed consent statement: All study participants, or their legal guardian, provided informed written consent prior to study enrollment.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Yu-Qiang Nie, MD, PhD, Professor, Chief, Department of Gastroenterology, Guangzhou First People’s Hospital, Guangzhou Medical University, 1 Panfu Road, Guangzhou 510180, Guangdong Province, China. nieyq@medmail.com.cn
Telephone: +86-20-81048720 Fax: +86-20-81048720
Received: September 14, 2015
Peer-review started: September 16, 2015
First decision: October 14, 2015
Revised: October 28, 2015
Accepted: December 8, 2015
Article in press: December 8, 2015
Published online: March 21, 2016
Processing time: 181 Days and 9.1 Hours
Abstract

AIM: To investigate Fusobacterium nucleatum (F. nucleatum) abundance in colorectal cancer (CRC) tissues and its association with CRC invasiveness in Chinese patients.

METHODS: The resected cancer and adjacent normal tissues (10 cm beyond cancer margins) from 101 consecutive patients with CRC were collected. Fluorescent quantitative polymerase chain reaction (FQ-PCR) was applied to detect F. nucleatum in CRC and normal tissues. The difference of F. nucleatum abundance between cancer and normal tissues and the relationship of F. nucleatum abundance with clinical variables were evaluated. Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) analysis was performed on 22 CRC tissues with the highest F. nucleatum abundance by FQ-PCR testing to confirm FQ-PCR results.

RESULTS: The median abundance of F. nucleatum in CRC tissues [0.242 (0.178-0.276)] was significantly higher than that in normal controls [0.050 (0.023-0.067)] (P < 0.001). F. nucleatum was over-represented in 88/101 (87.1%) CRC samples. The abundance of F. nucleatum determined by 2-ΔCT was significantly greater in tumor samples [0.242 (0.178, 0.276)] than in normal controls [0.050 (0.023, 0.067)] (P < 0.001). The frequency of patients with lymph node metastases was higher in the over-abundance group [52/88 (59.1%)] than in the under-abundance group [0/13 (0%)] (P < 0.005). No significant association of F. nucleatum with other clinico-pathological variables was observed (P > 0.05). FISH analysis also found more F. nucleatum in CRC than in normal tissues (median number 6, 25th 3, 75th 10 vs 2, 25th 1, 75th 5) (P < 0.01).

CONCLUSION: F. nucleatum was enriched in CRC tissues and associated with CRC development and metastasis.

Keywords: Colorectal cancer; Fusobacterium nucleatum; Metastases; Fluorescent quantitative polymerase chain reaction; Fluorescence in situ hybridization

Core tip: In this study, we demonstrated that Fusobacterium nucleatum (F. nucleatum) was significantly enriched in resected colorectal cancer (CRC) compared with adjacent normal tissues. F. nucleatum infection was associated with CRC development and metastasis. Our results were consistent with two previous reports. To our knowledge, this is the first report on the relationship between F. nucleatum and CRC in Chinese patients.