Fecal microbiota profiles and targeted qPCR markers associated with the need for therapeutic ascites drainage in patients with terminal pancreatic cancer: an exploratory study
Abstract
Fecal microbial features in patients with terminal pancreatic cancer remain poorly characterized. In this exploratory cross-sectional study, we prospectively recruited 13 patients with incurable pancreatic cancer and an estimated life expectancy of approximately 3 months or less, hereafter referred to as the terminal pancreatic cancer (TPC) cohort. Their 16S rRNA gene profiles were compared descriptively with those of historical healthy-control (n=65) and non-terminal pancreatic cancer (n=22) cohorts, and associations with the need for therapeutic ascites drainage were examined within the TPC cohort. Because pre-analytic and sequencing procedures were not fully harmonized across cohorts, between-cohort comparisons were considered contextual. Generalized UniFrac analysis showed apparent separation among the three cohorts, together with selected taxonomic differences in the TPC cohort. Within the TPC cohort, LEfSe screening identified higher Veillonella-related abundance and lower Bacteroides uniformis- and Parabacteroides merdae-related abundance in patients requiring therapeutic drainage, although none of these sequencing-derived signals remained significant after false-discovery-rate adjustment. Targeted qPCR of sequencing-selected markers showed higher levels of the Veillonella-linked cat marker in the therapeutic-drainage group (p=0.0082, q=0.0245; rank-biserial r=0.857), whereas buf and pmf were not significant after multiplicity correction. No routine blood variable remained significant after correction. These findings identify a fecal cat signal associated with therapeutic ascites drainage in patients with terminal pancreatic cancer and support prespecified prospective, multicenter, and longitudinal evaluation.
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BibTeX
@article{tokuda2026fecal,
title = {{Fecal microbiota profiles and targeted qPCR markers associated with the need for therapeutic ascites drainage in patients with terminal pancreatic cancer: an exploratory study}},
author = {Masutaka TOKUDA and Tadashi FUJII and Eizaburo OHNO and Hideaki TAKAHASHI and Kohei FUNASAKA and Yoshiki HIROOKA and Masanobu USUI and Takumi TOCHIO},
journal = {Bioscience of Microbiota, Food and Health},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.12938/bmfh.2026-054},
url = {https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/bmfh/advpub/0/advpub_2026-054/_article},
note = {CC BY-NC-ND},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Fecal microbiota profiles and targeted qPCR markers associated with the need for therapeutic ascites drainage in patients with terminal pancreatic cancer: an exploratory study
AU - Masutaka TOKUDA
AU - Tadashi FUJII
AU - Eizaburo OHNO
AU - Hideaki TAKAHASHI
AU - Kohei FUNASAKA
AU - Yoshiki HIROOKA
AU - Masanobu USUI
AU - Takumi TOCHIO
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/15
JO - Bioscience of Microbiota, Food and Health
DO - 10.12938/bmfh.2026-054
UR - https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/bmfh/advpub/0/advpub_2026-054/_article
AB - Fecal microbial features in patients with terminal pancreatic cancer remain poorly characterized. In this exploratory cross-sectional study, we prospectively recruited 13 patients with incurable pancreatic cancer and an estimated life expectancy of approximately 3 months or less, hereafter referred to as the terminal pancreatic cancer (TPC) cohort. Their 16S rRNA gene profiles were compared descriptively with those of historical healthy-control (n=65) and non-terminal pancreatic cancer (n=22) cohorts, and associations with the need for therapeutic ascites drainage were examined within the TPC cohort. Because pre-analytic and sequencing procedures were not fully harmonized across cohorts, between-cohort comparisons were considered contextual. Generalized UniFrac analysis showed apparent separation among the three cohorts, together with selected taxonomic differences in the TPC cohort. Within the TPC cohort, LEfSe screening identified higher Veillonella-related abundance and lower Bacteroides uniformis- and Parabacteroides merdae-related abundance in patients requiring therapeutic drainage, although none of these sequencing-derived signals remained significant after false-discovery-rate adjustment. Targeted qPCR of sequencing-selected markers showed higher levels of the Veillonella-linked cat marker in the therapeutic-drainage group (p=0.0082, q=0.0245; rank-biserial r=0.857), whereas buf and pmf were not significant after multiplicity correction. No routine blood variable remained significant after correction. These findings identify a fecal cat signal associated with therapeutic ascites drainage in patients with terminal pancreatic cancer and support prespecified prospective, multicenter, and longitudinal evaluation.
SN - 2186-3342
ER -