Simply stated, fungi are living things, once thought to be plants, that actually feed on plants, animals, or decaying material. Mushrooms, molds, yeast and toadstools are all members of the fungi family.
The human body, which is home to a diverse microbial ecosystem that plays an essential role in human health and immunity, includes a diversity of fungal species that is collectively referred to as our 'mycobiome' (photo above).
Yes, we all have one.
Researchers have recently confirmed that this fungi is even present within human cancers.
Because of this, scientists naturally want to learn how fungi functions in a cancer-tumor environment compared to bacteria and viruses, and see if and how this knowledge could potentially help people with cancer.
Groundbreaking New Study
A first-of-its-kind international study from the University of California San Diego School of Medicine released today in Cell shows the potential of using fungi as a diagnostic, prognostic and therapeutic tool against cancer.
A global team of scientists including co-author Sandip Patel, MD, an oncologist and head of clinical trials at UCSD, has created the first pan-cancer mycobiome atlas. The group looked at 35 types of cancer and associated fungi.
"Logic suggests that there are things in the tumor environment that either facilitate the cancer or keep it in check," Patel told The Reno Dispatch.
“Living organisms are interacting with the immune cells. This study is the initial foray into understanding what things within the tumor may contribute and/or inhibit the cancer’s growth."
Findings Were Both A Surprise and Expected
Rob Knight, PhD, professor of Bioengineering, Pediatrics and Computer Science and Engineering at UC San Diego and co-founder of Micronoma, a San Diego-based liquid biopsy company that is developing microbial biomarkers in blood and tissues to diagnose and treat cancers, was a co-author of the study.
“The existence of fungi in most human cancers is both a surprise and to be expected,” said Knight in a press statement.
“It is surprising because we don’t know how fungi could get into tumors throughout the body. But it is also expected because it fits the pattern of healthy microbiomes throughout the body, including the gut, mouth and skin, where bacteria and fungi interact as part of a complex community."
A Key Piece of Cancer Biology
Study co-author Gregory Sepich-Poore, PhD, co-founder and chief analytics officer at Micronoma, a San Diego-based liquid biopsy cancer company, said the findings “validate the view that the microbiome in its entirety is a key piece of cancer biology.”
He explained that this could potentially lead to significant
new ways of detecting cancer, as well as support other
biotech applications related to drug development, cancer evolution, minimal
residual disease, relapse and companion diagnostics.
The study characterizes the cancer mycobiome in 17,401 samples of patient tissues, blood and plasma.
Researchers found fungal DNA and cells in low abundances across many major human cancers, with differences in community compositions that differed among cancer types.
“The finding that fungi are commonly present in human tumors should drive us to better explore their potential effects and re-examine almost everything we know about cancer through a ‘microbiome lens,’” said co-corresponding author Ravid Straussman, MD, PhD, a principal investigator at Weizmann Institute of Science, in a press statement.
One species of fungi in the study, for example, was found to be enriched in breast cancer
tumors of patients older than 50 years, while another species was notably
abundant in lung cancer samples.
The researchers said there were significant correlations between specific fungi
and age, tumor subtypes, smoking status, response to immunotherapy and survival
measures.
Whether the fungi are simply correlated or causally associated remains to be determined.
Other Studies On Similar Tracks
Meanwhile, an industry-academic partnership between the University of Oxford and biopharmaceutical company NuCana found that chemotherapy drug NUC-7738, derived from a Himalayan fungus, has 40 times greater potency for killing cancer cells than its parent compound.
In July, Iliyan D. Iliev, MD, an associate professor of immunology in medicine in the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at Weill Cornell Medicine, was awarded a five-year, $1.25 million grant from the Cancer Research Institute that enabled his lab to continue research that investigates relationships between certain types of fungi and specific cancers.
His work stems from his study of patients with ulcerative colitis who later developed colorectal cancer. Iliev and his lab colleagues noticed that some cancer patients share unique microbiome composition where specific fungal strains prevailed.
“We found that some patients carry specific fungal strains that expand and produce a toxin that affected inflammation,” said Iliev, who's also co-director of the Microbiome Core Lab at Weill Cornell Medicine.
“One of the questions is whether the presence of these and other fungi influence cancer development and outcomes," he said.
In studies in mice last year, scientists from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center found that, when normal bacterial communities in the gut were disrupted, fungi moved in.
And these fungi, in turn, disrupted the immune response to tumors that may be important for radiation therapy to work most effectively, the team reported in Cancer Cell.
Mycobiome, Microbiome and Micronoma
This new branch of science has evolved quickly.
Micronoma's
CEO, Sandrine Miller-Montgomery, told The Reno Dispatch that microbes in the
blood can be used to detect cancer thanks to microbial biomarkers, which are
characteristics of the tumor that you can utilize to identify the progress of a
condition or disease.
When analyzed properly, she said, these microbial biomarkers can reveal cancer,
even at stage I of the disease. This is a new but growing type of liquid biopsy, a surging new sector of science.
“Micronoma has been closely following this amazing work on mycobiome as two of our co-founders are heavily involved in it,” Miller-Montgomery said.
“It is amazing that we continue to discover so much about the microbiome, and in this specific paper, the mycobiome association with cancer.”
Micronoma has been focused on microbiome-driven liquid biopsy since its inception, Miller-Montgomery said:
“Scientific knowledge continues to accumulate on the essential role of microbiome -- bacteria, virus and fungi -- in oncology, supporting our mission to detect cancer in its earliest stages with the most innovative and groundbreaking research.”
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Co-authors of this study include: Lian Narunsky-Haziza, Ilana Livyatan, Omer Asraf, Deborah Nejman, Nancy Gavert, Ruthie Ariel, Arnon Meltser and Yitzhak Pilpel, all at Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel; Cameron Martino, Antonio González, Justin P. Shaffer, Sandip Pravin Patel and Austin D. Swafford, all at UC San Diego; Jason E. Stajich, UC Riverside; Guy Amit and Amir Bashan, both at Bar-Ilan University, Israel; Stephen Wandro, Micronoma, San Diego. Also Gili Perry, Weizmann Institute, Sheba Medical Center and Tel-Aviv University; Qiyun Zhu, Arizona State University; Nora Balint-Lahat and Iris Barshack, both at Tel-Aviv University and Sheba Medical Center, Israel; Maya Dadiani, Sheba Medical Center; Einav N. Gal-Yam, Sheba Medical Center and UC San Diego.