ASCO: An evaluation of the microbiota of the upper genital tract of women with benign changes and epithelial ovarian cancer

2016 ASCO Annual Meeting | Abstracts

 Citation:

J Clin Oncol 34, 2016 (suppl; abstr 5568)

Session Type and Session Title: 

Poster Session, Gynecologic Cancer

Author(s): 

Wendy R. Brewster, Emily Meichun Ko, Temitope O Keku; University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC; University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA; University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC

Abstract Disclosures

Abstract: 

Background: The microbiota of the upper female genital tract has not been characterized. We hypothesize that bacterial species composition will vary in different areas and may alter terms of resilience to disturbances. We hypothesize that there are distinct microbiota of the female upper genital tract in women with epithelial cancers of the fallopian tube-ovary compared to women with benign disease.  

Methods: Postmenopausal women scheduled for hysterectomy and salpingo-oophorectomy were prospectively identified. Women who used antibiotics during the three months prior to hysterectomy were excluded, as were those with a known diagnosis of cancer of the uterus or cervix. Bacteria were extracted from tissue samples of the proximal fallopian tube, the fimbrea and the ovarian surface.Using molecular-phylogenetic methods based on the highly conserved 16S bacteria rRNA gene we assessed the complexity of upper genital tract microbiota in tissue samples by sequencing the V1-V2 region of the 16S gene on the Ion Torrent platform. Sequences were processed through QIIME and an average of 69,625 reads per sample was obtained after quality filtering. Multivariate analyses were conducted using PRIMER VI software.  

Results: The initial analysis of 25 samples from the proximal fallopian tube, fimbriae and ovary suggest that bacteria exist in the upper reproductive tract of postmenopausal women. The global R statistic suggests that the bacterial composition in the upper reproductive tract is different for the areas examined (p = 0.005). The bacterial composition is significantly different between the fallopian tube and ovary (p = 0.008). The proximal fallopian tube bacteria composition also differs from the fimbriated end (p = 0.01). When analyzed by epithelial ovarian cancer status, there is evidence of two groups with borderline differences in microbial profiles of cancer vs. no cancer (p = 0.06)  

Conclusions: We identified distinct microbiota of the female upper genital tract and a profile unique to women with epithelial ovarian cancer. Further investigation is necessary to determine if changes in the microbiota may precede the development of and contribute to fallopian tube-ovarian cancer susceptibility.