Fig. 6. Study design for characterizing cancer-associated microbiota and their functional impacts.
Opportunities exist to perform large-scale identification of the presence and function of cancer-associated microbiota, beginning with longitudinal cohorts and multi-region sampling. Existing tools can be used to gather multi-omic information on host immune cells, cancer cells, microbiota, and metabolites (51, 177, 178). In vitro and in vivo disease models of a patient’s tumor and intestine can then be used to verify or rebut the predicted functional impact and mechanism(s) of a given microbe (or its metabolites) and its causality in carcinogenesis (160, 170).