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Oncologists tap the microbiome in bid to improve immunotherapy outcomes

Nature Reviews Drug Discovery volume 17, pages 153–155 (2018)Cite this article

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A pioneering Merck & Co.-funded study is set to explore the ability of the microbiome to boost immuno-oncology therapy outcomes, and other companies are quickly gearing up to enter this clinical space.

When Hassane Zarour first saw the mouse data suggesting that the microbiome can control the efficacy of cancer immunotherapy drugs, he knew he wanted to test microbiome-moulding strategies in human cancer clinical trials. But Zarour, an immunologist at the University of Pittsburgh, hit a slew of scientific, regulatory and funding roadblocks as he tried to get such a trial up and running. “When I first proposed the trial, people laughed at me,” he says. Three years on, times have changed. Zarour and others are racing towards the clinic (Table 1). “It's become hot stuff now.”

Table 1 Select microbiome–immunotherapy cancer clinical trials
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  1. Asher Mullard
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Mullard, A. Oncologists tap the microbiome in bid to improve immunotherapy outcomes. Nat Rev Drug Discov 17, 153–155 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrd.2018.19

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