Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2011 Oct 14:6:137.
doi: 10.1186/1749-8090-6-137.

Bacterial and fungal microflora in surgically removed lung cancer samples

Panagiotis Apostolou  1 , Aggeliki Tsantsaridou, Ioannis Papasotiriou, Maria Toloudi, Marina Chatziioannou, Gregory Giamouzis
Affiliations

Bacterial and fungal microflora in surgically removed lung cancer samples

Panagiotis Apostolou et al. J Cardiothorac Surg. .

Abstract

Background: Clinical and experimental data suggest an association between the presence of bacterial and/or fungal infection and the development of different types of cancer, independently of chemotherapy-induced leukopenia. This has also been postulated for the development of lung cancer, however the prevalence and the exact species of the bacteria and fungi implicated, have not yet been described.

Aim: To determine the presence of bacterial and fungal microflora in surgically extracted samples of patients with lung cancer.

Materials and methods: In this single-center prospective, observational study, tissue samples were surgically extracted from 32 consecutive patients with lung cancer, and reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) was used to identify the presence of bacteria and fungi strains.

Results: The analysis of the electrophoresis data pointed out diversity between the samples and the strains that were identified. Mycoplasma strains were identified in all samples. Strains that appeared more often were Staphylococcus epidermidis, Streptococcus mitis and Bacillus strains, followed in descending frequency by Chlamydia, Candida, Listeria, and Haemophilus influenza. In individual patients Legionella pneumophila and Candida tropicalis were detected.

Conclusions: A diversity of pathogens could be identified in surgically extracted tissue samples of patients with lung cancer, with mycoplasma strains being present in all samples. These results point to an etiologic role for chronic infection in lung carcinogenesis. Confirmation of these observations and additional studies are needed to further characterize the etiologic role of inflammation in lung carcinogenesis.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Electrophoresis results for Mycoplasma strains.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Alberg AJ, Brock MV, Samet JM. Epidemiology of lung cancer: looking to the future. J Clin Oncol. 2005;23(14):3175–85. doi: 10.1200/JCO.2005.10.462. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Sun S, Schiller JH, Gazdar AF. Lung cancer in never smokers--a different disease. Nat Rev Cancer. 2007;7(10):778–90. doi: 10.1038/nrc2190. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Govindan R. Lung cancer in never smokers: a new hot area of research. Lancet Oncol. pp. 304–5. - PubMed
    1. Engels EA. Inflammation in the development of lung cancer: epidemiological evidence. Expert Rev Anticancer Ther. 2008;8(4):605–15. doi: 10.1586/14737140.8.4.605. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Ballaz S, Mulshine JL. The potential contributions of chronic inflammation to lung carcinogenesis. Clin Lung Cancer. 2003;5(1):46–62. doi: 10.3816/CLC.2003.n.021. - DOI - PubMed