Gut microbes offer clues for early detection of pancreatic cancer

Pancreatic cancer is a severe illness and major challenge in cancer medicine since it is difficult to diagnose, while potential therapies are scarce. A new international cooperation study indicates that in the future pancreatic cancer may be detected at an early stage from gut microbes. Gut microbes may also offer solutions for therapy development.

Researchers from HUS, the University of Helsinki, the University of Jyväskylä, Finland, and from Iran have jointly made new observations about gut microbes associated with pancreatic cancer. The researchers analyzed microbes living in the guts of Finnish and Iranian pancreatic cancer patients and their healthy peers. The study involved altogether more than 180 persons. The study is part of Doctoral Researcher Heidelinde Sammallahti's doctoral dissertation research at the University of Helsinki.

The same gut microbes associated with pancreatic cancer were found in the patients irrespective of geographic location and ethnic background.

Pancreatic cancer patients' intestinal flora included significantly more facultative pathogens and significantly less beneficial bacteria than in the healthy peer group.

In particular, beneficial bacteria belonging to the class of Clostridia, such as butyric acid-producing Lachnospiraceae, Butyricicoccaceae and Ruminococcaceae, had decreased.

Pancreatic cancer pathogens include, for example, Enterobacteriaceae, Enterococcaceae and Fusobacteriaceae. The levels of these in pancreatic cancer patients' intestinal flora were high.

Senior Lecturer Satu Pekkala from the Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences, University of Jyväskylä, summarizes the research team's shared view of the research findings:

"The findings on beneficial Clostridia are interesting because it has been shown earlier that ordinary Clostridiales populations effectively mediate anti-canceric immune reactions against solid tumors."

The researchers accordingly point out that future research projects should investigate whether these could serve as a new generation of probiotics, that is, living microbic products, which could be combined with traditional chemotherapy medicines. This could provide a more targeted and effective approach to the control of pancreatic cancer, the researchers suggest, while they also emphasise the need for further research to confirm the present findings in different populations.

The researchers also developed a statistical model based on the microbiome, by means of which it could be possible to predict pancreatic cancer. It is a good first step to enable early recognition of pancreatic cancer in the future.