Association of microbiota with cancer treatment.

Abstract

The impact of immune checkpoint molecule inhibitors on cancer treatment is significant. At the same time, further improvement in their efficacy has become essential. For this reason, there has been increasing interest in investigating the state of the cancer microenvironment in which efficacy can be demonstrated. The gut microbiota plays an important role in the cancer microenvironment. Recent developments in the study of gut microbiota have been explosive, benefiting from technological innovations in next-generation sequencing. Gut microbiota are specific enough to identify an individual and change gently with age. Disruptions in the gut microbiota have been extensively studied in relation to a variety of diseases. In addition to monotherapy with anti-PD-1/PD-L1 antibodies, combination therapy with chemotherapy and molecular target therapy, as well as combination therapy with anti-PD-1 and anti-CTLA-4 antibodies, is now widely used in cancer treatment with immune checkpoint inhibitors. Therefore, the development of biomarkers that can predict anti-tumor and adverse events is urgently required due to the complexity of the treatment, and research on gut microbiota is expected in this respect.