RESUMO
With the widely application of the metagenomics, the relationship between microbiota and disease has become a hot research topic. Understanding the potential association between upper gastrointestinal cancer or precancerous lesions and microbiota may play an important role in the early detection, clinical diagnosis and treatment, and prognostic evaluation of upper gastrointestinal cancer. Therefore, a literature retrieval was conducted by using PubMed, Embase and wanfang databases to summarize the latest research progress in the microbiota of upper gastrointestinal cancer, including oral, esophageal, gastric cancer and precancerous lesions. Lower microbial diversity or richness in esophageal cancer and precancerous lesions and specific prognostic biomarkers for esophageal cancer were found. Lactobacillus richness showed an increase trend during the process from gastritis to gastric cancer. This paper summarizes the progress in the research of potential biological etiology of upper gastrointestinal cancer from the perspective of metagenomics in order to provide evidence on the, prevention and control of upper gastrointestinal cancer.