Cecal microbiota association with tumor load in a colorectal cancer mouse model.

Background: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most common cancer types worldwide. The role of the intestinal microbiota in CRC, however, is not well established. In particular, the co-variation between age, tumor progression and microbiota remains largely unknown. Objective and design: We therefore used a recently developed A/J Min/+ mouse model resembling human CRC to investigate how microbial composition in cecum correlates with tumor progression, butyrate and age. Results: We found that the association between the gut microbiota and tumor load was stronger, by far, than the association with both butyrate and age. The strongest direct tumor association was found for mucosal bacteria, with nearly 60% of the significantly correlating operational taxonomic units being correlated with CRC tumor load alone. Conclusion: We favor a systemic association between tumor load and microbiota, since the correlations are associated with tumor load in gut segments other than the cecum (both small and large intestine).