A widely used sampling device in colorectal cancer screening programmes allows for large-scale microbiome studies

Conventionally, laboratory-based FIT is the preferred approach in testing for occult blood in faeces, which includes colorectal cancer screening programmes.2–4 The potential of preserving stable faecal samples in a widely used FIT buffer for microbiome research would enable prospective microbiome studies in generally healthy subjects undergoing colorectal cancer screening. [...]lyophilisation for all of the wFIT samples, except for woFIT samples, was applied, increasing the yield of DNA up to 30 times. According to upper dendrogram, there is a consistency within the samples composition as the samples from the same individual are clustering together. Funding The work was supported by the ERDF project ‘Long-term effects of H. pylori eradication on gastrointestinal tract microbiome and development of screening system for detection of extended-spectrum beta-lactamase coding genes within faeces samples’ (project no: 1.1.1.1/16/A/272) and in part by the Swedish Research Council (project no: