Striking Microbiome Bacterial Population Differences Distinguish Metastatic Prostate Cancer From Non-Metastatic Disease

At the 2025 ASCO Genitourinary Cancers Symposium, researchers from Japan reported marked differences between the populations of several key microbial species in the gut microbiomes of patients with metastatic prostate cancer that distinguished them from those with non-metastatic disease. This was in the PROMISE-JAPAN study with 869 Japanese patients.   After talking about his group’s new data, lead researcher Koji Hatano, MD, a urologist from Osaka University in Japan, discussed the insights this has given doctors into the metastatic process and potential ways of modifying it.