Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2018 May 22;6(1):92.
doi: 10.1186/s40168-018-0483-7.

Pharmacomicrobiomics: exploiting the drug-microbiota interactions in anticancer therapies

Concetta Panebianco  1 , Angelo Andriulli  1 , Valerio Pazienza  2
Affiliations
Review

Pharmacomicrobiomics: exploiting the drug-microbiota interactions in anticancer therapies

Concetta Panebianco et al. Microbiome. .

Abstract

Cancer is a major health burden worldwide, and despite continuous advances in medical therapies, resistance to standard drugs and adverse effects still represent an important cause of therapeutic failure. There is a growing evidence that gut bacteria can affect the response to chemo- and immunotherapeutic drugs by modulating either efficacy or toxicity. Moreover, intratumor bacteria have been shown to modulate chemotherapy response. At the same time, anticancer treatments themselves significantly affect the microbiota composition, thus disrupting homeostasis and exacerbating discomfort to the patient. Here, we review the existing knowledge concerning the role of the microbiota in mediating chemo- and immunotherapy efficacy and toxicity and the ability of these therapeutic options to trigger dysbiotic condition contributing to the severity of side effects. In addition, we discuss the use of probiotics, prebiotics, synbiotics, postbiotics, and antibiotics as emerging strategies for manipulating the microbiota in order to improve therapeutic outcome or at least ensure patients a better quality of life all along of anticancer treatments.

Keywords: Cancer; Chemotherapy; Immunotherapy; Metagenomics; Microbiota.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
The microbiota modulates chemotherapy efficacy and toxicity
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
The microbiota modulates immunotherapy efficacy and toxicity
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
“Biotic” strategies to modulate microbiota and the outcome of anticancer therapies
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Sender R, Fuchs S, Milo R. Revised estimates for the number of human and bacteria cells in the body. PLoS Biol. 2016;14(8):e1002533. doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.1002533. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Jandhyala SM, Talukdar R, Subramanyam C, Vuyyuru H, Sasikala M, Nageshwar RD. Role of the normal gut microbiota. World J Gastroenterol. 2015;21(29):8787–8803. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v21.i29.8787. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Roy S, Trinchieri G. Microbiota: a key orchestrator of cancer therapy. Nat Rev Cancer. 2017;17(5):271–285. doi: 10.1038/nrc.2017.13. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Panebianco C, Potenza A, Andriulli A, Pazienza V. Exploring the microbiota to better understand gastrointestinal cancers physiology. Clin Chem Lab Med; 2018. 10.1515/cclm-2017-1163. [Epub ahead of print] - PubMed
    1. Pope JL, Tomkovich S, Yang Y, Jobin C. Microbiota as a mediator of cancer progression and therapy. Transl Res. 2017;179:139–154. doi: 10.1016/j.trsl.2016.07.021. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources