Association of gut Fusobacteria abundance with peritoneal metastasis in gastric signet-ring cell carcinoma: a cross-sectional study.
8 affiliations
- 1Department of Gastroenterology, General Hospital of Central Theater Command, Wuhan, 430070, P.R. China.
- 2Hubei Province Key Laboratory of Precision Radiation Oncology, Wuhan, Hubei, China.
- 3Department of Emergency, The First Affiliated Hospital of Jinan University, Guangzhou, 510000, P.R. China.
- 4Department of Gastroenterology, General Hospital of Central Theater Command, Wuhan, 430070, P.R. China. [email protected].
- 5Department of Gastroenterology, General Hospital of Central Theater Command, Wuhan, 430070, P.R. China. [email protected].
- 6Cancer Center, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430022, P.R. China. [email protected].
- 7Institute of Radiation Oncology, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430022, P.R. China. [email protected].
- 8Hubei Key Laboratory of Precision Radiation Oncology, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, 430022, China. [email protected].
Abstract
Background
Gastric signet-ring cell carcinoma (SRCC) is an aggressive gastric cancer subtype with a high propensity for peritoneal metastasis (PM). While gut microbiota is implicated in gastric carcinogenesis, its specific role in SRCC and PM remains unknown. This study aimed to identify gut microbial markers associated with SRCC and its peritoneal metastasis.Methods
We performed 16S rRNA gene sequencing on fecal samples from a discovery cohort (22 SRCC, 80 non-SRCC gastric cancer, 40 healthy controls) and a validation cohort (24 SRCC, 40 non-SRCC, 19 healthy controls), including 10 SRCC patients with PM and 28 without PM. Microbial diversity, differential abundance, random forest (RF) modeling, and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis were used to identify candidate microbial markers.Results
SRCC patients showed increased gut microbial biodiversity. Originally defined by Linear discriminant analysis Effect Size (LEfSe), this method identified 40 differentially abundant taxa, with Fusobacteria as a top-ranked feature by random forest. The abundance of Fusobacteria was higher in SRCC vs. non-SRCC (0.059 vs. 0.005) and in signet-ring cell carcinoma with peritoneal metastasis (S-PM) vs. without peritoneal metastasis (n-S-PM) (0.019 vs. 0.003). ROC analysis showed moderate discriminatory ability for SRCC (P = 0.0023) but not for PM (P = 0.380).Conclusions
Gut Fusobacteria abundance is associated with gastric SRCC, but its predictive value for peritoneal metastasis is limited. These findings suggest a potential auxiliary role for Fusobacteria as a non-invasive biomarker, requiring validation in larger prospective cohorts.
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BibTeX
@article{fan2026association,
title = {{Association of gut Fusobacteria abundance with peritoneal metastasis in gastric signet-ring cell carcinoma: a cross-sectional study.}},
author = {Qilin Fan and Rong Zhang and Dan Xu and Feng Wen and Weitian Xu and Hongli Liu},
journal = {BMC gastroenterology},
year = {2026},
month = jul,
doi = {10.1186/s12876-026-05074-z},
url = {https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42928123},
note = {CC BY-NC-ND},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Association of gut Fusobacteria abundance with peritoneal metastasis in gastric signet-ring cell carcinoma: a cross-sectional study.
AU - Qilin Fan
AU - Rong Zhang
AU - Dan Xu
AU - Feng Wen
AU - Weitian Xu
AU - Hongli Liu
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/07/29
JO - BMC gastroenterology
DO - 10.1186/s12876-026-05074-z
UR - https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42928123
AB - Background Gastric signet-ring cell carcinoma (SRCC) is an aggressive gastric cancer subtype with a high propensity for peritoneal metastasis (PM). While gut microbiota is implicated in gastric carcinogenesis, its specific role in SRCC and PM remains unknown. This study aimed to identify gut microbial markers associated with SRCC and its peritoneal metastasis.Methods We performed 16S rRNA gene sequencing on fecal samples from a discovery cohort (22 SRCC, 80 non-SRCC gastric cancer, 40 healthy controls) and a validation cohort (24 SRCC, 40 non-SRCC, 19 healthy controls), including 10 SRCC patients with PM and 28 without PM. Microbial diversity, differential abundance, random forest (RF) modeling, and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis were used to identify candidate microbial markers.Results SRCC patients showed increased gut microbial biodiversity. Originally defined by Linear discriminant analysis Effect Size (LEfSe), this method identified 40 differentially abundant taxa, with Fusobacteria as a top-ranked feature by random forest. The abundance of Fusobacteria was higher in SRCC vs. non-SRCC (0.059 vs. 0.005) and in signet-ring cell carcinoma with peritoneal metastasis (S-PM) vs. without peritoneal metastasis (n-S-PM) (0.019 vs. 0.003). ROC analysis showed moderate discriminatory ability for SRCC (P = 0.0023) but not for PM (P = 0.380).Conclusions Gut Fusobacteria abundance is associated with gastric SRCC, but its predictive value for peritoneal metastasis is limited. These findings suggest a potential auxiliary role for Fusobacteria as a non-invasive biomarker, requiring validation in larger prospective cohorts.
SN - 1471-230X
ER -