Engineering Living Bacteria for Cancer Therapy.

Bacteria possess many unique properties in treating cancer that are unachievable with standard methods, including specific tumor targeting, deep tissue penetration, and programmable therapeutic efficacy. Bacteria species such as , , , and have been demonstrated to restrict tumor growth with improved prognosis in mice models. Moreover, some bacterial strains were advanced to clinical trials. This Spotlight on Applications summarizes general strategies for engineering living bacteria to fight cancer and provides examples to illustrate different approaches to engineer bacteria for safety and therapeutic index improvement.