Fecal Microbiome Analysis in Indian Colorectal Cancer Patients- An Exploratory Study

The incidence of colorectal cancer (CRC)in on the rise in countries which traditionally were thought to have lower rates, this includes India where the incidence is alarmingly getting higher with every decade. The focus on the association between gut microbiome and the development of CRC is evolving rapidly. The gut microbiome has an important role in the carcinogenesis by causing the initial inflammation and modulating different signalling pathways. In a dysbiotic state the response and resistance to systemic anti-cancer therapies is also governed by the gut microbiome. This establishes a prognostic and predictive value to the detection of pathogenic biomarkers in the stool and could also serve as good screening tool for early detection of CRC. The major hindrance to comprehensive understanding of the role of the microbiome in CRC biology is the lack of diversity of sample populations. Majority of the available data is from western stool samples. The limited Indian data available clearly shows a difference in the prevalence of carcinogenic bacteria hence making the western data irrelevant