Breast cancer causes 15% of cancer
deaths in women worldwide. The roles of genetic mutations in breast cancer risk
are well known. Recent studies have shown that there is a diversity of microbes
in breast tissues. However, the role of the tumor microbiome in influencing
breast cancer is not fully understood.
We analyzed RNA sequencing data
from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) breast cancer project and observed that
breast cancer types can be segregated by microbiome content. We also identified
a bacterial enzyme that resembles the HER2 protein, which is a drug target in
breast cancer, and showed that this bacterial protein increases the growth of
breast cancer cell lines. We are currently testing the effect of this bacterial
protein on drug response.