Roughly one in five cancer patients benefits from immunotherapy -- a treatment that harnesses the immune system to fight cancer. Such an approach to beating cancer has seen significant success in lung cancer and melanoma, among others. Optimistic about its potential, researchers are exploring strategies to improve immunotherapy for cancers that don't respond well to the treatment, with the hope of benefiting more patients.
Cancer immunotherapy employs the body's immune cells to target and destroy tumors. One such treatment uses immune checkpoint inhibitor drugs to unleash the immune system by releasing the natural brakes that keep immune T cells quiet, a feature that prevents the body from harming itself. But some tumors fight back to suppress the attacking immune cells, damping the effectiveness of such inhibitors.
Cohabiting mice share microbes with one another. The researchers suspected the effects might have been due to exchanges of gut bacteria. The researchers worked with Jeffrey I. Gordon, MD, the Dr. Robert J. Glaser Distinguished University Professor, and co-first author Blanda Di Luccia, PhD, a postdoctoral researcher, to study the microbes in the intestines of the mice that were treated successfully with immunotherapy.