Association of Cutibacterium acnes with human thyroid cancer

IntroductionThe diverse subtypes of thyroid carcinoma have distinct clinical outcomes despite a comparable spectrum of underlying genetic alterations. Beyond genetic alterations, sparse efforts have been made to characterize the microbes associated with thyroid cancer. In this study, we examine the microbial profile of thyroid cancer.MethodsWe sequenced the whole transcriptome of 70 thyroid cancers (40 papillary and 30 anaplastic). Using Infectious Pathogen Detector IPD 2.0, we analysed the relative abundance of 1060 microbes across 70 tumours from patients with thyroid cancer against 118 tumour samples from patients with breast, cervical, colorectal, and tongue cancer.ResultsOur analysis reveals a significant prevalence of Cutibacterium acnes in 58.6% thyroid cancer samples compared to other cancer types (p=0.00038). Immune cell fraction analysis between thyroid cancer samples with high and low Cutibacterium loads identify enrichment of immunosuppressive cells, including Tregs (p=0.015), and other anti-inflammatory cytokines in the tumour microenvironment, suggesting an immune evasion/immunosuppression milieu is associated with the infection. A higher burden of Cutibacterium acnes was also found to be associated with poor survival defining a distinct sub-group of thyroid cancer.ConclusionCutibacterium acnes is associated with immune suppression and poor prognosis in a subpopulation of thyroid cancer. This study may help design novel therapeutic measures involving appropriate antibiotics to manage the disease better

Ataxia-telangiectasia and combined hepatocellular-cholangiocarcinoma: A case report

Ataxia-telangiectasia (A-T) is a rare autosomal recessive disease characterized by ataxia, cutaneous and ocular telangiectasia, impaired immunity with susceptibility to sino-pulmonary infections, radiation sensitivity, and cancers particularly of hemato-lymphoid origin. Liver function tests abnormalities and elevated alfa feto-protein have been reported in A-T; however, there is no reported case of combined hepatocellular-cholangiocarcinoma (cHCC-CC) in literature. These tumors should be treated in similar fashion as in general population; however, reduction of chemotherapy dose might be helpful in decreasing chemo-toxicity