{"id":230812,"date":"2026-02-07T13:10:55","date_gmt":"2026-02-07T19:10:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/02\/prism-reanalyzes-4400-tumors-reshaping-the-debate-over-tumor-microbiomes"},"modified":"2026-02-07T13:10:55","modified_gmt":"2026-02-07T19:10:55","slug":"prism-reanalyzes-4400-tumors-reshaping-the-debate-over-tumor-microbiomes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/02\/prism-reanalyzes-4400-tumors-reshaping-the-debate-over-tumor-microbiomes","title":{"rendered":"PRISM reanalyzes 4,400 tumors, reshaping the debate over tumor microbiomes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/prism-reanalyzes-4400-tumors-reshaping-the-debate-over-tumor-microbiomes2.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>When scientists sequence tumor DNA, they typically find small amounts of genetic code from bacteria, viruses and fungi\u2014microorganisms that\u2014if actually present in tumor tissues\u2014could influence how they grow, evade immunity or respond to treatment. But do microorganisms truly reside in tumors, or do the samples become contaminated before sequencing occurs?<\/p>\n<p>Independent analyses of the same genomic data have reached wildly different conclusions. Now, researchers at Rutgers Cancer Institute have developed a computational tool that settles the controversy by distinguishing genuine microbial signals from artifacts. Their <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cell.com\/cancer-cell\/abstract\/S1535-6108(26)00046-2?rss=yes\" target=\"_blank\">findings<\/a> are published in Cancer Cell.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere are microbes all over the environment, on our skin and in our breath,\u201d said Subhajyoti De, a member of the Genomic Instability and Cancer Genetics Program at Rutgers Cancer Institute and the senior author of the study. \u201cThere could be DNA particles floating in the air. How do you know whether you\u2019re finding came from the tissue you were interested in, or whether something was introduced along the way?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When scientists sequence tumor DNA, they typically find small amounts of genetic code from bacteria, viruses and fungi\u2014microorganisms that\u2014if actually present in tumor tissues\u2014could influence how they grow, evade immunity or respond to treatment. But do microorganisms truly reside in tumors, or do the samples become contaminated before sequencing occurs? Independent analyses of the same [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":662,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,1523,412],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-230812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biotech-medical","category-computing","category-genetics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/662"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230812"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230812\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}