Gut microbiota and response to multimodal therapy in hepatocellular carcinoma with portal vein tumor thrombus
Baseline and longitudinal gut microbial signatures were associated with therapeutic response in HCC patients with PVTT receiving SBRT, cadonilimab, and lenvatinib.
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What the study showed
The abstract describes an exploratory analysis of fecal microbiota in 23 patients categorized as responders or non-responders by mRECIST criteria. Differences in microbial diversity, differential taxa, and predicted KEGG functional profiles were reported between groups. Detailed association results are not available in the abstract.
How it was done
Exploratory study nested within a prospective phase II trial; 46 paired fecal samples collected before and after 3 cycles of cadonilimab from 23 patients, analyzed by 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing.
Risk of bias
Extremely small sample size (n=23), secondary exploratory design without pre-specified statistical power for microbiota outcomes; 16S rRNA sequencing offers limited taxonomic resolution compared to shotgun metagenomics.
What this study does NOT prove
It cannot be concluded that gut microbiota causally predicts or modulates treatment response in this population.
In clinical practice
No clinical application is warranted based on this abstract. Findings are preliminary and hypothesis-generating only.
Limitations
Extremely small sample size (n=23), secondary exploratory design without pre-specified statistical power for microbiota outcomes; 16S rRNA sequencing offers limited taxonomic resolution compared to shotgun metagenomics.
Technical appendix
Version history
- 1.0 · 2026-09-03 — Auto-generated under Evidence Standard v1.0
Paid access: structured summary from public metadata; consult the original study at the source.