May 12, 2024

Debunked: Study Finds No Connection Between Common Fungus and Pancreatic Cancer

Upon trying to verify this discovery, researchers from Duke Health found no such connection. The Duke teams findings were recently released in the journal Nature. Their extensive analysis of information from the preliminary research study did not develop any connection in between the microbiome of the pancreas and the onset of pancreatic cancer.

” There is a growing body of literature connecting the human microbiome to disease, and this was especially engaging for pancreatic cancer,” Allen said. “But our findings did not support an association in between fungi and the development of pancreatic cancer in human beings.”
Allen and coworkers worked to recreate the 2019 findings released in Nature by a various research study team. The original research study raised hopes that there may be a possible technique of avoiding pancreatic cancer with making use of antifungals or some other method to secure from infection.
Concentrating on the research groups original raw sequencing data, the Duke scientists were unable to recreate the findings. Additional research studies, utilizing pancreatic cancer tissue in Duke repositories, likewise failed to produce the original results.
” We believe our findings highlight the challenges of using low biomass samples for microbiome sequencing studies,” Allen stated. “The inclusion of suitable negative controls and efforts to remove and determine sequencing contaminants is important to the interpretation of microbiome information.”
Recommendation: “Revisiting the intrinsic mycobiome in pancreatic cancer” by Ashley A. Fletcher, Matthew S. Kelly, Austin M. Eckhoff and Peter J. Allen, 2 August 2023, Nature.DOI: 10.1038/ s41586-023-06292-1.
In addition to Allen, study authors include Ashley A. Fletcher, Matthew S. Kelly, and Austin M. Eckhoff.
The work was funded by the Duke University School of Medicine through a grant from the Duke Microbiome Center. Kelly and Eckhoff get funding from the National Institutes of Health (K23-AI135090, T32-CA093245).

Duke Health researchers, working to validate a four-year-old theory that a typical fungi might trigger pancreatic cancer, have actually discovered no such link. Despite the initial guarantee, their detailed analysis did not support an association in between fungi and the advancement of pancreatic cancer.
A research study performed four years ago suggested a potential link between a common type of fungus and the advancement of pancreatic cancer, offering an appealing brand-new view of the lethal illness.
Upon attempting to validate this discovery, researchers from Duke Health discovered no such connection. The Duke teams findings were recently published in the journal Nature. Their comprehensive analysis of information from the preliminary research study did not develop any correlation in between the microbiome of the pancreas and the beginning of pancreatic cancer.
” We were intrigued by the original finding, as were lots of research study groups,” said senior author Peter Allen, M.D., teacher in the Department of Surgery and chief of the Division of Surgical Oncology at Duke University School of Medicine.