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Review
. 2024 Feb 29;16(5):996.
doi: 10.3390/cancers16050996.

Involvement of the Gut Microbiome in the Local and Systemic Immune Response to Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma

James M Halle-Smith  1   2   3 , Hayden Pearce  2 , Samantha Nicol  2 , Lewis A Hall  1   2 , Sarah F Powell-Brett  1   2 , Andrew D Beggs  3 , Tariq Iqbal  4   5   6 , Paul Moss  2 , Keith J Roberts  1   2
Affiliations
Review

Involvement of the Gut Microbiome in the Local and Systemic Immune Response to Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma

James M Halle-Smith et al. Cancers (Basel). .

Abstract

The systemic and local immunosuppression exhibited by pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) contributes significantly to its aggressive nature. There is a need for a greater understanding of the mechanisms behind this profound immune evasion, which makes it one of the most challenging malignancies to treat and thus one of the leading causes of cancer death worldwide. The gut microbiome is now thought to be the largest immune organ in the body and has been shown to play an important role in multiple immune-mediated diseases. By summarizing the current literature, this review examines the mechanisms by which the gut microbiome may modulate the immune response to PDAC. Evidence suggests that the gut microbiome can alter immune cell populations both in the peripheral blood and within the tumour itself in PDAC patients. In addition, evidence suggests that the gut microbiome influences the composition of the PDAC tumour microbiome, which exerts a local effect on PDAC tumour immune infiltration. Put together, this promotes the gut microbiome as a promising route for future therapies to improve immune responses in PDAC patients.

Keywords: gut microbiome; immunosuppression; pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma; tumour microbiome.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The gut microbiome influences the immune infiltration of PDAC tumours in multiple different ways (Created with BioRender.com).
Figure 2
Figure 2
The microbiome could be modified towards a more favourable phenotype in PDAC (created with BioRender.com).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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