Microbial Signatures of Breast Carcinogenesis: Synthesizing Evidence from Breast Tissue Microbiome Studiese

Microbial Signatures of Breast Carcinogenesis: Synthesizing Evidence from Breast Tissue Microbiome Studiese

Alvin Sherman Library

Breast cancer remains one of the most prevalent cancers worldwide, affecting approximately one in eight women in the United States. Recent advances in microbiome research have highlighted the microbiome's essential role in maintaining health and influencing disease progression. Increasing attention has been directed toward understanding how microbial communities contribute to cancer development, particularly through effects on immune function, metabolism, and cellular signaling pathways. While most existing research has examined the gut microbiome and its relationship to breast cancer focusing on the gut-breast axis, microbial translocation, and their contributions to tumor progression, there is a growing need to characterize the breast tissue-specific microbiome itself. Such work may reveal patterns of dysbiosis directly associated with breast carcinogenesis. This review synthesizes current findings on microbial composition in healthy versus cancerous breast tissue. To complement the literature, we analyzed publicly available RNA sequence data from the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) biosamples SAMN20520696 and SAMN20520701, to evaluate taxonomic profiles associated with normal and malignant breast tissues. This analysis is ongoing; however, we expect breast cancer tissues to demonstrate reduced microbial diversity and enrichment of taxa associated with pro-inflammatory or tumor-promoting activity. Understanding these microbial shifts may offer important insights into the role of dysbiosis in breast cancer progression and identify potential microbial biomarkers for future diagnostic or therapeutic applications.