Cancer and the Microbiome
Description: The microbiome is an essential player in human health and disease. Gut microbiota dysbiosis associates with several cancers due to microbial products that cause inflammation, oncogenic gene expression changes, or genetic material destruction.  For example, people with colorectal cancer have different microbes in the tumor microenvironment than in adjacent healthy mucosa. These microbes may influence their host’s response to a range of cancer treatments—chemotherapy and immunotherapies, such as checkpoint inhibitors, are more effective in patients with healthy gut microbiomes.