Accumulating evidence demonstrates that intestinal bacteria influence oncogenesis, tumor progression, and response to therapy. Thus, selectively manipulating the gut microbiota may represent a feasible means to (i) limit the incidence of specific tumors in the general population and/or (ii) improve the activity of various anticancer agents . Although the first possibility has been investigated in several models of oncogenesis with promising results, the actual oncopreventive effects of anti-, pre-, pro-, and postbiotics in humans remain to be established.
Also, it is indirect evidence of "cancer is an adaptation mechanism"
DEPTHCANCER Gut microbes shape response to cancer immunotherapy Science 03 Nov 20l Summary
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This week, two studies offer a raft of evidence from cancer patients suggesting that the gut microbiome—the community of bacteria, viruses, and other bugs living in our digestive tracts—helps determine whether tumors shrink when treated with a powerful new type of cancer drug. Patients who took antibiotics for routine reasons before or soon after starting a type of immunotherapy known as a PD-1 inhibitor relapsed and died sooner than those who were antibiotic-free. And when mice received fecal transplants from patients who responded to the drugs, they did better on PD-1 blockers than did mice given nonresponder feces. Researchers are now planning a clinical trial to test whether manipulating the gut microbiome could help more cancer patients respond to PD-1 blockers.
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