Abstract
Hematological malignancies, including multiple myeloma, lymphoma, and leukemia, are a heterogeneous group of neoplasms that affect the blood, bone marrow, and lymph nodes. They originate from uncontrolled growth of hematopoietic and lymphoid cells from different stages in their maturation/differentiation and account for 6.5% of all cancers around the world. During the last decade, it has been proven that the gut microbiota, more specifically the gastrointestinal commensal bacteria, is implicated in the genesis and progression of many diseases. The immune-modulating effects of the human microbiota extend well beyond the gut, mostly through the small molecules they produce. This review aims to summarize the current knowledge of the role of the microbiota in modulating the immune system, its role in hematological malignancies, and its influence on different therapies for these diseases, including autologous and allogeneic stem cell transplantation, chemotherapy, and chimeric antigen receptor T cells.
Highlights
The complex ecosystem formed by trillions of microorganisms living in and on the human body is known as the human microbiota
Gut microbiota can shape the immune system well beyond the gastrointestinal tract and this is key to comprehending its role in health and disease
Migrating bacterial antigen-loaded dendritic cells (DC) would travel to secondary lymphoid organs and potentially prime cross-reactive anti-tumor T cells
Summary
The complex ecosystem formed by trillions of microorganisms living in and on the human body is known as the human microbiota. The host obtains benefits like the strengthening of the gut integrity, intestinal epithelium modulation [20], protection against pathogens [21], fat metabolism support [22], and angiogenesis [23] Beyond these important functions the gut microbiota generates a complex network of metabolic pathways, as the bacterial gene set is approximately 150 times larger than the human. The human microbiota has been implicated in modulating the efficacy and toxicity of cancer therapy, including chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and, more recently, immunotherapy [35,69,70,71,72,73,74] All these studies provide strong evidence for a close and complex interplay between the gut microbiome, tumor development, and anti-tumor immunotherapies as explained
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