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Cancer therapy

Linking the microbiome to CAR-T cell responses

Nature Medicine volume 29, pages 785–786 (2023)Cite this article

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The composition of the intestinal microbiome may predict clinical outcomes of CAR-T cell therapy for lymphoma, which could inform microbiota-based intervention strategies.

Disruption of the intestinal microbiota is implicated in the pathophysiology of numerous health conditions, and recent studies have identified the gut microbiome as a variable that can impact cancer immunotherapy outcomes1,2,3,4. Most of these studies have focused on immune checkpoint blockade, although effects of the microbiota on clinical outcomes have also been observed in allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplant (which can be considered a very broad form of immunotherapy). By contrast, CD19-directed CAR-T cells are a highly targeted form of immunotherapy, and a previous report involving a retrospective cohort showed a surprising association between outcomes after this treatment and use of broad-spectrum antibiotics in patients with lymphoma2. In this issue of Nature Medicine, Stein-Thoeringer and colleagues carried out a prospective study to assess changes to the gut microbiome over the course of CAR-T cell therapy in patients with large cell lymphoma, and their impact on outcomes5.

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Fig. 1: Evaluating the effects of the intestinal microbiome on outcomes of CAR-T cell therapy in patients with lymphoma.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Hematopoietic Cell Transplant and Cellular Therapy Program, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA

    Zachariah DeFilipp

  2. Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

    Zachariah DeFilipp & Marcela V. Maus

  3. Cellular Immunotherapy Program, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA

    Marcela V. Maus

Authors
  1. Zachariah DeFilipp
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  2. Marcela V. Maus
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Correspondence to Marcela V. Maus.

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Competing interests

Z.D. receives research support from Incyte, Corp., Regimmune, Corp and Taiho Oncology, Inc. and has received consulting fees from Kadmon Corp., Omeros Corp., Incyte, Corp., MorphoSys AG, Inhibrx and PharmaBiome AG. M.V.M. is an inventor on patents related to adoptive cell therapies, held by Massachusetts General Hospital (some licensed to Promab) and University of Pennsylvania (some licensed to Novartis). M.V.M. receives Grant/Research support from: Kite Pharma. M.V.M. has served as a consultant for multiple companies involved in cell therapies. M.V.M. holds Equity in 2SeventyBio, Century Therapeutics, Neximmune, Oncternal and TCR2. M.V.M. is on the Board of Directors of 2Seventy Bio.

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DeFilipp, Z., Maus, M.V. Linking the microbiome to CAR-T cell responses. Nat Med 29, 785–786 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-023-02272-0

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