Trends in Cancer
Volume 6, Issue 3, March 2020, Pages 192-204
Journal home page for Trends in Cancer

Opinion
The Cancer Microbiome: Distinguishing Direct and Indirect Effects Requires a Systemic View

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trecan.2020.01.004Get rights and content
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Highlights

  • Microbiomes impact on human health in many ways and likely impact on cancer progression and response to therapy.

  • The effects of microbiomes on cancer may be direct or indirect.

  • The interactions between microbiomes and cancers – two complex systems on their own – require a systems biology approach.

  • Treatments that alter microbiome composition of cancer patients are already under investigation in trials.

The collection of microbes that live in and on the human body – the human microbiome – can impact on cancer initiation, progression, and response to therapy, including cancer immunotherapy. The mechanisms by which microbiomes impact on cancers can yield new diagnostics and treatments, but much remains unknown. The interactions between microbes, diet, host factors, drugs, and cell–cell interactions within the cancer itself likely involve intricate feedbacks, and no single component can explain all the behavior of the system. Understanding the role of host-associated microbial communities in cancer systems will require a multidisciplinary approach combining microbial ecology, immunology, cancer cell biology, and computational biology – a systems biology approach.

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