F. nucleatum in esophageal cancer tissues was associated with shorter survival, suggesting a potential role as a prognostic biomarker. F. nucleatum might also contribute to aggressive tumor behavior through activation of chemokines, such as CCL20. Clin Cancer Res; 22(22); 5574-81. ©2016 AACR.

CONUT is useful for not only estimating nutritional status but also for predicting long-term OS in gastric cancer patients after curative resection.

Purpose: Emerging evidence indicates that gut microbiome plays a crucial role in the cancer pathogenesis. Although Fusobacterium nucleatum (F. nucleatum) is associated with poor prognosis in multiple cancers, its clinical significance in predicting response to chemotherapy in patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) remains unclear.Experimental Design: The F. nucleatum levels were quantified by qPCR assays in tumor tissues from 551 patients with ESCC from two independent cohorts, including 101 patients who received neoadjuvant chemotherapy prior to curative resection. Associations between F. nucleatum burden and recurrence-free survival (RFS), as well with chemotherapeutic response were evaluated using response evaluation criteria in solid tumors (RECISTs), primary tumor metabolic response defined by maximum standardized uptake value (SUV max ) changes in positron emission tomography-CT (PET/CT), and pathologic tumor regression grade (TRG).Results: High burden of F. nucleatum in patients with ESCC associated with poor RFS in both training [log-rank P ¼ 0.02; HR ¼ 1.61; P ¼ 0.03] and validation cohorts (log-rank P ¼ 0.003; HR ¼ 1.96; P ¼ 0.004). Importantly, patients with ESCC with high levels of F. nucleatum displayed poor chemotherapeutic response for all three evaluation methods: RECIST (P ¼ 0.04), SUV max change in PET/CT (P ¼ 0.0004), and TRG (P ¼ 0.003).Conclusions: We conclude that high levels of intratumoral F. nucleatum have a prognostic significance for predicting poor RFS in patients with ESCC. More importantly, our data indicates that higher F. nucleatum burden correlates with poor response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy, suggesting the possibility that an antibiotic intervention against this bacterium may significantly improve therapeutic response in patients with ESCC.