Druzhinin VG, Matskova LV, Demenkov PS, et al. - To assess the impact of the respiratory tract microbiome on the development of lung cancer, researchers compared the sputum microbiome of lung cancer (LC) patients with the chromosomal aberration (CA) and micronuclei (MN) frequency in peripheral blood lymphocytes. A comparison was performed between 66 men with untreated LC vs 62 controls, focusing on the taxonomic composition of the sputum microbiome. LC patients vs controls were found to have a significant increase in CA and MN frequencies respectively. Experts identified that LC patients vs controls had a significant increase in Streptococcus, Bacillus, Gemella and Haemophilus while a significant decrease in 18 bacterial genera was evident, which suggested a reduction in the beta diversity in the microbiome of LC patients. Overall, findings revealed that beta diversity of microbiome differed significantly between LC and controls, and there was a link between the sputum microbiome composition and genome damage of LC patients. Therefore, earlier investigations suggesting an etiological association between the airway microbiome and LC are supported by these data.