Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • NEWS AND VIEWS

Fungi accelerate pancreatic cancer

The impact of fungi on human health is under-studied and underappreciated. One genus of fungus, Malassezia, has now been linked to the progression of pancreatic cancer.
  1. Ivy M. Dambuza

    1. Ivy M. Dambuza is in the Medical Research Council Centre for Medical Mycology, University of Exeter, Exeter EX4 4QD, UK.

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed  Google Scholar

  2. Gordon D. Brown

    1. Gordon D. Brown is in the Medical Research Council Centre for Medical Mycology, University of Exeter, Exeter EX4 4QD, UK.

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed  Google Scholar

The communities of microorganisms that occupy specific regions of the body are often altered in cancer1, and these microbiomes — particularly their bacterial components — are a current focus of cancer research. One example is pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDA), for which changes in the bacterial community occupying the pancreas have been documented2. This lethal disease often goes undetected until it has reached advanced stages, and the prognosis is usually very poor3. Writing in Nature, Aykut et al.4 reveal that the fungal component of the pancreatic microbiome (known as the mycobiome) is also altered in PDA. In fact, an abundance of a specific fungal genus actually promotes the disease.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Nature 574, 184-185 (2019)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-02892-y

References

  1. Helmink, B. A. et al. Nature Med. 25, 377–388 (2019).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Pushalkar, S. et al. Cancer Discov. 8, 403–416 (2018).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. McGuigan, A. et al. World J. Gastroenterol. 24, 4846–4861 (2018).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Aykut, B. et al. Nature 574, 264–267 (2019).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Iliev, I. D. et al. Science 8, 1314–1317 (2012).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Bacher, B. et al. Cell 6, 1340–1355.e15 (2019).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Elinav, E., Garrett, W. S., Trinchieri, G. & Wargo, J. Nature Rev. Cancer 7, 371–376 (2019).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Schmid, St. W., Uhl, W. & Büchler, M. W. in Pancreatic Disease: State of the Art and Future Aspects of Research (eds Lankisch, P. G. & DiMagno, E. P.) 39–54 (Springer, 1999).

    Google Scholar 

  9. Findley, K. F. et al. Nature 498, 367–370 (2013).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Kruger, W. et al. Pathogens 8, 70 (2019).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Chiba, S. et al. eLife 3, e04177 (2014).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  12. Daley, D. et al. Nature Med. 23, 556–567 (2017).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Subjects

Latest on:

Nature Careers

Jobs

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing

Search

Advanced search

Quick links