The urinary microbiome associated with bladder cancer

Abstract

Recent findings suggest that microorganisms inhabiting the human body can influence the development of cancer, but the role of microorganisms in bladder cancer pathogenesis has not been explored yet. The aim of this study was to characterize and compare the urinary microbiome of bladder cancer patients with those of healthy controls. Bacterial communities present in urine specimens collected from male patients diagnosed with primary or recurrent, non-muscle invasive bladder cancers, and from healthy, age-matched individuals were analysed using 16S Illumina MiSeq sequencing. Our result show that the most abundant phylum in both groups was Firmicutes, followed by Actinobacteria, Bacteroidetes and Proteobacteria. While microbial diversity and overall microbiome composition were not significantly different between bladder cancer and healthy samples, we identified specific operational taxonomic units (OTUs) that were significantly more abundant (p < 0.05) in either type of samples. Among those that were significantly enriched in the bladder cancer group, we identified an OTU belonging to genus Fusobacterium, a possible protumorigenic pathogen. Three OTUs more abundant in healthy urines were from genera Veillonella, Streptococcus and Corynebacterium. Detected microbiome changes suggest that microbiome may be a factor in bladder cancer pathology, and the clinical implications of reported results remain to be explored.