Bladder cancer-related microbiota: examining differences in urine and tissue samples

The microbiota isolated from the urine of bladder carcinoma patients exhibits significantly increased compositional abundance of some bacterial genera compared to the urine of healthy patients. Our aim was to compare the microbiota composition of cancerous tissues and urine samples collected from the same set of patients in order to improve the accuracy of diagnostic measures. Tissue samples were collected from patients during cancer tissue removal by transurethral resection. In parallel, urine samples were obtained by transurethral resectoscopy from the same patients. The V3–V4 region of the bacterial 16S rRNA gene was sequenced and analyzed using the Kraken pipeline. In the case of four patients, duplicate microbiota analysis from distant parts of the cancerous tissues was highly reproducible, and independent of the site of tissue collection of any given patient. Akkermansia, Bacteroides, Clostridium sensu stricto, Enterobacter and Klebsiella, as “five suspect genera”, were over-represented in tissue samples compared to the urine. To our knowledge, this is the first study comparing urinary and bladder mucosa-associated microbiota profiles in bladder cancer patients. More accurate characterization of changes in microbiota composition during bladder cancer progression could provide new opportunities in the development of appropriate screening or monitoring methods.