Effect of gastrointestinal microbiome and its diversity on the expression of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes in breast cancer

The diversity of the gastrointestinal microbiome is closely associated with human health. In the present study, the gastrointestinal microbiome and tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) were compared in patients with breast cancer (BC). A total of 80 patients with BC were divided into three groups based on the expression of TILs, as follows: High expression of TILs (TIL-H), medium expression of TILs (TIL-M) and low expression of TILs (TIL-L). DNA of the gastrointestinal microbiome was determined by Illumina sequencing and taxonomy of 16S ribosomal RNA genes. A χ test and UniFrac analysis of β-diversity were applied to assess the association between clinical characteristics and diversity of the gastrointestinal microbiome. The β-diversity distribution was statistically significant (weighted UniFrac, P