GI tract and tumour microbiome and mycobiome in pancreatic cancer
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Gastrointestinal tract and tumour microbiome and mycobiome in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC): A pilot study among PDAC patients, individuals at high risk of PDAC and controls. (MICROBEPANC Study)
IRAS ID
342952
Contact name
Kofi Oppong
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Newcastle Joint Research Office
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 6 months, 2 days
Research summary
There is growing evidence that the microbiome (community of microorganisms that live in or on the human body) plays a role in the development of pancreatic cancer (PC) and its response to treatment. The relationship of tumour microbiome to gut microbiome is unknown and it is also unknown whether individuals at high risk of pancreatic cancer (HRI) have a unique predisposing gut microbiome.
Patients with PC often undergo Endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) guided biopsy to obtain small tissue samples for diagnosis, EUS is also used for annual surveillance of HRI.
We want to use the EUS procedure to enable the simultaneous study of the gut and tumour microbiome in patients with PC and the gut microbiome in HRI. Developing such a platform will lead to larger scale studies that could pave the way to new methods of screening, early diagnosis, and therapy.
We aim to recruit 40 PC patients, 10 HRI and 10 patients without pancreatic disease (as controls) undergoing routine EUS procedures. Saliva and stool samples will be obtained from all participants. PC patients will have EUS guided biopsy as routinely planned, and a small portion of the tumour biopsy will be retained for the study. All participants will additionally have small biopsies taken from the lining of the stomach and duodenum. Further tumour samples will be taken for the study from the removed tumour of participants who go on to have surgery. HRI who undergo annual EUS will have saliva and stool samples as well as stomach and duodenal biopsy samples taken at their routine EUS examination a year later. All samples will undergo analyses to determine what bacteria and fungi are present and in what proportions. The study is funded by Pancreatic cancer UK, participants will be recruited at the Freeman Hospital and samples analysed at Newcastle university.REC name
North East - Newcastle & North Tyneside 1 Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
24/NE/0164
Date of REC Opinion
17 Oct 2024
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion