In a new study from King’s College London, researchers found that the gut microbiome plays an important role in each patient’s response to cancer immunotherapy therapy, particularly in the case of melanoma.
The gut microbiome is an immune system regulator.
As a set of microorganisms that live in the intestines, the microbiome can be altered through dietary changes, next-generation probiotics, and fecal transplantation.
This change is, in turn, modifying the microbiome’s action on the immune system.
Understanding the characteristics of the microbiome can enable treating clinicians to alter a patient’s microbiome accordingly before starting treatment.
Less than 50% of patients respond positively to immunotherapy for melanoma so finding strategies to increase the number of positive responders is crucial.
In the current study, the team put together the largest cohort of patients with melanoma and samples of their gut microbiome from five clinical centers in the UK, the Netherland, and Spain.
Researchers carried out a large-scale metagenomic study—sequencing of the gut microbiome—to investigate whether there is an association between the composition and function of the gut microbiome and response to immunotherapy.
They found that the presence of three types of bacteria (Bifidobacterium pseudocatenulatum, Roseburia spp. and Akkermansia muciniphila) seems to be associated with a better immune response.
One more discovery was that the microbiome itself is strongly influenced by factors including the patient constitution, use of proton pump inhibitors, and diet that should be considered in future longitudinal studies.
As Professor Nicola Segata says, the study shows that studying the microbiome is important to improve and personalize immunotherapy treatments for melanoma.
However, it also suggests that because of the person-to-person variability of the gut microbiome, even larger studies must be carried out to understand the specific gut microbial features that are more likely to lead to a positive response to immunotherapy.
If you care about gut health, please read studies about common fruit that can boost your gut health, lower cholesterol levels, and stuff in toothpaste that can trigger gut inflammation.
For more information about gut diseases, please see recent studies that your vitamin D level may affect your gut health, and results showing this diet can boost your gut health effectively.
The study was conducted by Karla Lee et al., and published in Nature Medicine.
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