Immunotherapy presents a relatively new means of treating cancer cells that leverages a patient’s own immune system. Rather than introduce drugs to attack and kill cancer cells, immunotherapy is more concerned with training the immune system to become more effective at finding and killing cancer cells.
This treatment is more effective against specific types of cancers, including tumors that don’t respond to conventional treatments, recurring cancer and advanced cases of cancer.
Immunotherapy has an overall response rate of around 15 to 20% and usually leaves patients with immunological memory, a term used to describe the immune system’s ability to learn how to spot and destroy cancer cells in the long-term even after immunotherapy treatment is over.
Researchers have now found that diet and gut microbiota can affect the outcome of immunotherapy treatment in cancer patients.
Immunotherapy or immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) cancer treatment may be quite effective at treating cancer, but its relatively low response rates mean only a small percentage of cancer patients get to benefit from this treatment.
Scientists theorized that the gut bacteria’s effect on the immune system may also play a role in how patients respond to immunotherapy. Furthermore, the microbiome could help in the development of a tool to determine who would respond to immunotherapy treatment.
Prior research has determined that the gut biome influences the functioning of the immune system, with mice that have fewer gut bacteria exhibiting reduced immune cells and higher susceptibility to conditions such as cancer. In such cases, research has found that adding bacteria to a subject with a deficient gut microbiome could help boost their immune system and bolster their defenses against a myriad of medical conditions.
The gut microbiome in people with cancer often differs in composition compared to people without cancer. For instance, people with untreated pancreatic, colorectal and lung cancer tend to have more levels of bacteria such as Veillonella.
Cancer symptoms such as appetite loss coupled with the side effects of cancer treatment can also affect gut microbiome composition. Diet will also affect the composition of bacteria as certain foods encourage the growth of different bacteria.
The researchers posit that they may be able to use nutrition and gut bacteria coupled with body weight to predict treatment outcomes for cancer patients looking to undergo immunotherapy treatment. Using diet and gut microbiome information in conjunction with modern analysis methods that leverage machine learning and statistics could allow physicians to predict immunotherapy responses in different cancers.
Companies such as BiondVax Pharmaceuticals Ltd. (NASDAQ: BVXV) that are engaged in developing immunotherapies targeting a variety of ailments are likely to assess how any information on the impact of gut biota and diet can enrich their treatment development efforts.
NOTE TO INVESTORS: The latest news and updates relating to BiondVax Pharmaceuticals Ltd. (NASDAQ: BVXV) are available in the company’s newsroom at https://ibn.fm/BVXV
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