Cancer Immune Checkpoint Inhibitor Therapy and the Gut Microbiota

• Published in: Integrative Cancer Therapies Vol. 18; p. 1534735419846379
• Main Authors: Frankel, Arthur E., Deshmukh, Sachin, Reddy, Amit, Lightcap, John, Hayes, Maureen, McClellan, Steven, Singh, Seema, Rabideau, Brooks, Glover, T. Grant, Roberts, Bruce, Koh, Andrew Y.
• Format: Book Review Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01-01-2019; SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC; SAGE Publishing
• Subjects: Animals; Cancer; Cancer immunotherapy; Gastrointestinal Microbiome - immunology; Humans; Immune checkpoint inhibitors; Immune system; Immune System - immunology; Immunotherapy; Immunotherapy - methods; Intestinal microflora; Microbiota; Microenvironments; Molecular modelling; Neoplasms - immunology; Neoplasms - therapy; Next-generation sequencing; Review; cytotoxic T-lymphocytes; cancer; dendritic cells; gut microbiota; immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy
• ISSN: 1534-7354; 1552-695X
• DOI: 10.1177/1534735419846379

The past decade has seen tremendous advances in both our understanding of cancer immunosuppressive microenvironments and colonic bacteria facilitated by immune checkpoint inhibitor antibodies and next generation sequencing, respectively. Because an important role of the host immune system is to communicate with and regulate the gut microbial community, it should not come as a surprise that the behavior of one is coupled to the other. In this review, we will attempt to dissect some of the studies demonstrating cancer immunotherapy modulation by specific gut microbes and discuss possible molecular mechanisms for this effect.