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REVIEW article

Front. Immunol.
Sec. Cancer Immunity and Immunotherapy
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2024.1512683
This article is part of the Research Topic The Role of the Microbiome in Modulating Response and Adverse Events in Solid Tumor Immunotherapy Treated Patients View all 5 articles

Understanding the role of the gut microbiome in solid tumor responses to immune checkpoint inhibitors for personalized therapeutic strategies: A review

Provisionally accepted
Mi Young Lim Mi Young Lim 1Seungpyo Hong Seungpyo Hong 2Young-Do Nam Young-Do Nam 1*
  • 1 Korea Food Research Institute, Jeollabuk-do, Republic of Korea
  • 2 Jeonbuk National University, Jeonju, North Jeolla, Republic of Korea

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Immunotherapy, especially immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) therapy, has yielded remarkable outcomes for some patients with solid cancers, but others do not respond to these treatments. Recent research has identified the gut microbiota as a key modulator of immune responses, suggesting that its composition is closely linked to responses to ICI therapy in cancer treatment. As a result, the gut microbiome is gaining attention as a potential biomarker for predicting individual responses to ICI therapy and as a target for enhancing treatment efficacy. In this review, we discuss key findings from human observational studies assessing the effect of antibiotic use prior to ICI therapy on outcomes and identifying specific gut bacteria associated with favorable and unfavorable responses. Moreover, we review studies investigating the possibility of patient outcome prediction using machine learning models based on gut microbiome data before starting ICI therapy and clinical trials exploring whether gut microbiota modulation, for example via fecal microbiota transplantation or live biotherapeutic products, can improve results of ICI therapy in patients with cancer. We also briefly discuss the mechanisms through which the gut microbial-derived products influence immunotherapy effectiveness. Further research is necessary to fully understand the complex interactions between the host, gut microbiota, and immunotherapy and to develop personalized strategies that optimize responses to ICI therapy.

    Keywords: gut microbiome, Immunotherapy, Immune checkpoint inhibitor, Solid cancer, response, prediction, intervention

    Received: 17 Oct 2024; Accepted: 16 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Lim, Hong and Nam. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Young-Do Nam, Korea Food Research Institute, Jeollabuk-do, Republic of Korea

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.