Intervention strategies for microbial therapeutics in cancer immunotherapy

Immunotherapies have drastically improved clinical outcomes in a wide range of malignancies. Nevertheless, patient responses remain highly variable, and reliable biomarkers that predict responses accurately are not yet fully understood. Compelling evidence from preclinical studies and observational...

Full description

Saved in:

Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Immuno-oncology technology Vol. 6; pp. 9 - 17
Main Authors:	Gopalakrishnan, V., Weiner, B., Ford, C.B., Sellman, B.R., Hammond, S.A., Freeman, D.J., Dennis, P., Soria, J-C., Wortman, J.R., Henn, M.R.
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	Elsevier Ltd 01-06-2020 Elsevier
Subjects:	gut microbiome immunotherapy next-generation microbial therapeutics oncology reverse translation Review therapeutic response gut microbiome next-generation microbial therapeutics oncology therapeutic response reverse translation immunotherapy
Online Access:	Get full text
Tags:	Add Tag No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!

Description
Summary:	Immunotherapies have drastically improved clinical outcomes in a wide range of malignancies. Nevertheless, patient responses remain highly variable, and reliable biomarkers that predict responses accurately are not yet fully understood. Compelling evidence from preclinical studies and observational data from clinical cohorts have shown that commensal microorganisms that reside in the human gastrointestinal tract, collectively termed the ‘microbiome’, can actively modify responses to chemotherapeutic agents and immunotherapies by influencing host immunosurveillance. Notably, microbial correlates are largely context specific, and response signatures may vary by patient population, geographic location and type of anticancer treatment. Therefore, the incongruence of beneficial microbiome signatures across studies, along with an emerging understanding of the mechanisms underlying the interactions between the microbiome, metabolome and host immune system, highlight a critical need for additional comprehensive and standardized multi-omics studies. Future research should consider key host factors, such as diet and use of medication, in both preclinical animal models and large-scale, multicenter clinical trials. In addition, there is a strong rationale to evaluate the microbiome as a tumor-extrinsic biomarker of clinical outcomes and to test the therapeutic potential of derived microbial products (e.g. defined microbial consortia), with the eventual goal of improving the efficacy of existing anticancer treatments. This review discusses the importance of the microbiome from the perspective of cancer immunotherapies, and outlines future steps that may contribute to wide-ranging clinical and translational benefits that may improve the health and quality of life of patients with cancer. •The gut microbiome impacts the outcomes of cancer treatment by influencing host immunosurveillance.•Modulation of microbiota represents a novel therapeutic strategy to improve responses.•Incongruent beneficial bacterial signatures complicate the design of modulators.•Reverse translation processes can be used to characterize candidate bacteria.•Rationally designed microbial consortia catalyze transition to a healthy ecology.
Bibliography:	ObjectType-Article-2 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-3 content type line 23 ObjectType-Review-1 Present address: Institut Gustave Roussy, 114 Rue Edouard Vaillant, 94800 Villejuif, France.
ISSN:	2590-0188 2590-0188
DOI:	10.1016/j.iotech.2020.05.001