Microbiomics Unit, Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences, University of Bologna, Bologna 40138, Italy.
Unit of Microbiome Science and Biotechnology, Department of Pharmacy and Biotechnology, University of Bologna, Bologna 40126, Italy.
Curr Med Chem. 2022;29(18):3202-3230. doi: 10.2174/0929867329666220105121754.
The human gut microbiome has received a crescendo of attention in recent years due to the countless influences on human pathophysiology, including cancer. Research on cancer and anticancer therapy is constantly looking for new hints to improve the response to therapy while reducing the risk of relapse. In this scenario, the gut microbiome and the plethora of microbial-derived metabolites are considered a new opening in the development of innovative anticancer treatments for a better prognosis. This narrative review summarizes the current knowledge on the role of the gut microbiome in the onset and progression of cancer, as well as in response to chemo-immunotherapy. Recent findings regarding the tumor microbiome and its implications for clinical practice are also commented on. Current microbiome-based intervention strategies (i.e., prebiotics, probiotics, live biotherapeutics and fecal microbiota transplantation) are then discussed, along with key shortcomings, including a lack of long-term safety information in patients who are already severely compromised by standard treatments. The implementation of bioinformatic tools applied to microbiomics and other omics data, such as machine learning, has an enormous potential to push research in the field, enabling the prediction of health risk and therapeutic outcomes, for a truly personalized precision medicine.
近年来，由于人类生理学无数的影响因素，包括癌症，人类肠道微生物组受到了越来越多的关注。癌症和抗癌治疗的研究一直在不断寻找新的线索，以提高治疗反应率，同时降低复发风险。在这种情况下，肠道微生物组和大量微生物衍生代谢物被认为是开发创新抗癌治疗方法的一个新方向，以获得更好的预后。本文综述总结了肠道微生物组在癌症发生和进展以及对化疗免疫治疗反应中的作用的最新知识。还评论了最近关于肿瘤微生物组及其对临床实践的影响的研究结果。然后讨论了基于微生物组的干预策略（即，益生元、益生菌、活体生物治疗和粪便微生物移植），以及关键的缺点，包括缺乏已经接受标准治疗的严重受损患者的长期安全性信息。将生物信息学工具应用于微生物组学和其他组学数据（如机器学习）的实施具有巨大的潜力，可以推动该领域的研究，从而能够预测健康风险和治疗结果，实现真正的个性化精准医疗。
