Fig. 1: Association of the gut microbiota with tumour volume and aggressiveness in prostate cancer patients.

a Tumour volume from prostate cancer patients treated by radical prostatectomy was estimated based on the % of cancer tissue identified at the pathological examination and the total prostate mass (g) at surgery (n = 62 total, low n = 19, medium n = 20, high n = 23). Two-sided Welch’s t-test was used for comparing groups. b Metataxonomic analysis at the phylum level of fecal samples from patients with different prostate tumour burden described in (a), fecal samples were harvested 5.0 ± 0.5 weeks before surgery. c Shannon diversity index at family taxonomic level of 16S rRNA sequences associated with fecal samples from prostate cancer patients with different tumour burden described in (a). Two-sided Welch’s t-test was used for comparing groups. d Bray-Curtis beta-diversity analysis at the family taxonomic level and Principal Component Analysis (PCA) representation for the fecal microbiota corresponding to samples in (a). e Blood PSA levels from prostate cancer patients recently treated by radical prostatectomy, either without any biochemical recurrence (BCR-None, n = 20), with early (Low PSA 0.05–0.49 ng/mL, mean PSA 0.17 ng/mL, SE ± 0.02, n = 9) or definitive BCR (PSA > 0.5 ng/mL, mean 2.96 ng/mL, SE ± 0.46, n = 18). Two-sided Welch’s t-test was used for comparing groups. f Metataxonomic analysis at the phylum level of fecal samples from patients in (e). Two-sided Welch’s t-test was used for comparing groups. g Shannon diversity index at family taxonomic level of 16S rRNA sequences associated with fecal samples from prostate cancer patients described in (e). Two-sided Welch’s t-test was used for comparing groups. h Bray-Curtis beta-diversity analysis at the family taxonomic level and PCA representation for the fecal microbiota corresponding to sample in (e). Graphs are mean ± SEM.