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. 2026 Mar 6.
doi: 10.1038/s41416-026-03344-x. Online ahead of print.

Dynamic reorganisation of intratumoural bacterial florae during colorectal cancer progression

Minghao Li #  1 , Yang Li #  2   3 , Chen Li  3 , Anhang Liu  1 , Yang Liu  1 , Yang Li  1 , Jian Xiao  1 , Dongchen Zhang  3 , Yan Jin  1 , Guangxi Wang  1 , Xin Pang  4 , Kewei Jiang  5 , Yuxin Yin  6   7
Affiliations

Dynamic reorganisation of intratumoural bacterial florae during colorectal cancer progression

Minghao Li et al. Br J Cancer. .

Abstract

Background: Colorectal cancer (CRC) exhibits distinct bacterial community compositions compared to healthy mucosae, which intimately correlate with CRC clinical outcomes. There is a lack of explanation for the inducements of microbiota remodelling.

Methods: FISH experiments and 16S rRNA sequencing were conducted to determine the inducements of various bacterial colonisation within tissues. Community cultivation was conducted to estimate the capacity of tumours to remodel bacterial communities. Metagenomic analyses were utilised to determine the remodelled communities of CRC with distant metastasis. Scratch tests and three-dimensional (3D) cultivation were employed to investigate the influence of specific taxa on tumour cell behaviours.

Results: Colorectal tumours exhibit heterogeneous and individualised preferences in constantly remodelling intratumoural bacterial florae. Various degrees of colorectal gland differentiation within tumours cause heterogeneous intratumoural bacterial colonisation. CRC progression further alters bacterial community composition. Particularly, Prevotella is significantly enriched in the newly established communities colonising the primary foci of metastatic CRC. Furthermore, Prevotella intermedia (P. intermedia) promotes the invasion, migration, and ectopic tumorigenesis of CRC cells.

Conclusions: Individual evaluation of the preference of tumours in microbiota may pave the way to the development of CRC therapeutic strategies, and Prevotella is an emerging genus worthy of clinical attention.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests. Ethics approval and consent to participate: All the sample processing methods were performed in accordance with Interim Measures for the Administration of Human Biological Samples Used for Scientific Research in Medical and Health Institutions. This study is approved by the Research Ethics Committee of Peking University People’s Hospital (Approval No. 2022PHB025-001). All the participants in this study have signed written consents at Peking University People’s Hospital, defining that the tissue samples can be used for biological and medical research. Additionally, there was no identifiable image from human research participants involved in this study. Consent for publication: All patients participating in the study provided written consent for the use of tissue samples and partial individual information (including gender, age, and diagnostic results) in research and publication.

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