Crosstalk between the gut microbiome and clinical response in locally advanced thoracic esophageal squamous cell carcinoma during neoadjuvant camrelizumab and chemotherapy

BACKGROUND: The gut microbiome is associated with the response to immunotherapy in a variety of advanced cancers. However, the influence of the gut microbiome on locally advanced esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) during programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) antibody immunotherapy plus chemotherapy is not clearly demonstrated. To explore the crosstalk between the gut microbiome and clinical response in locally advanced thoracic ESCC during neoadjuvant camrelizumab and chemotherapy METHODS: Patients who were diagnosed with locally advanced thoracic ESCC and had not received treatment were enrolled. The treatment regimen was two cycles of camrelizumab combined with carboplatin and albumin paclitaxel before surgery. The research endpoints were pathological complete response (pCR) and major pathological response (MPR). Fecal samples were collected at three time points: before neoadjuvant therapy, after two cycles of neoadjuvant therapy, and after surgery. We performed 16S ribosomal ribonucleic acid (rRNA) V3–V4 sequencing of the gene amplicons of fecal samples, as well as bacterial diversity and differential abundance analyses. RESULTS: A total of 46 patients were recruited, and 44, 42, and 35 fecal samples were collected at the three time points, respectively. Statistically significant differences were observed in the amplicon sequence variant (ASV)-level alpha diversity indices, including Chao1, Shannon, and Good’s coverage, between the three time points. The non-pCR-enriched gut microbiota included Proteobacteria, Dialister, Aeromonadales, Pseudomonadales, Thermi, Deinococci, Moraxellaceae, Rhodocyclales, Rhodocyclaceae, and Acinetobacter. The non-MPR-enriched gut microbiota included Pseudomonadales and the mitochondria family. The MPR-enriched gut microbiota included the Barnesiellaceae, Pyramidobacter, Dethiosulfovibrionaceae, Odoribacteraceae, Butyricimonas, Prevotella, Barnesiella, and Odoribacter. Patients with ≥3 grade adverse events (AEs) exhibited enrichment in the Succiniclasticum, Nakamurella, Rhizobium, Granulicella, Phyllobacteriaceae, Pelagibacteraceae, Actinosynnemataceae, Aquirestis, Flavisolibacter, Chelativorans, Coxiellaceae Acidicapsa, Acidobacteriaceae, Lentzea, Staphylococcus, Plesiomonas, Dysgonomonas, Pseudonocardia, and Ellin6075. CONCLUSIONS: We found that the diversity of the gut microbiome declined after neoadjuvant PD-1 antibody immunotherapy plus chemotherapy and surgery. Patients with pCR had different types and proportions of gut microbiota before treatment compared to those without pCR. We also observed the difference between patients with or without ≥ grade 3 AEs. The taxonomic features of the gut microbiome are potential biomarkers that could predict the pathological response and AEs.