Table 2.

Summary of cultivation-independent studies on esophageal microbiome (2004–2013)

Category	Pei8 2004	Narikiyo17 2004	Pei9 2005	Yang13 2009	Liu18 2013
Disease	Normal	Cancer	RE BE	Normal RE, BE	Normal RE, BE
Specimen	Biopsy	Biopsy	Biopsy	Biopsy	Biopsy Aspirate
No. cases	4	20	24	34	18
No. clones	900	100	147	6800	424
No. species	95	7	39	166	ND
Mean species per case	43	≤6	ND	ND	ND
% cases positive for bacteria	100	ND	100	100	100
% cases positive for Streptococcus	100	87	ND	100	83.3