Fecal microbiota (FMT) transmission is the process of transferring fecal bacteria from one healthy person to another specifically for treatment. Clostridioides difficile infection among several other diseases. Now, new research from the UPMC Hillman Cancer Center and the National Cancer Institute (NCI) reveals that it could make cancer treatment easier.
The new study observed the stool transfusion performed on patients with advanced melanoma who never responded to immunotherapy and found that FMT appeared to enhance their response to anti-PD-1 immunotherapy.
“FMT is just a way to end,” said in a study co-lead author Diwakar Davar, MD, an oncologist and member of the Cancer Immunology and Immunotherapy (CIIP) Program at UPMC Hillman and associate professor of medicine at the University Pittsburgh.
“We know that the synthesis of the intestinal microbiome – gut bacteria – can alter the appearance of an immunotherapy response. But what are ‘good’ bacteria? There are about 100 trillion gut bacteria, and 200 times more of bacterial genes in an individual’s midges than in all of their combined cells. “
The combination of FMT and anti-PD-1 treatment was administered to 15 advanced melanoma patients. Of those 15, six exhibited either tumor reduction or disease persistence lasting more than a year, a 40 percent success rate.
“The likelihood that patients treated in this trial independently respond to a second administration of anti-PD-1 immunotherapy is very low,” said study co-author Hassane Zarour, MD. cancer psychologist and co-director of the CIIP at UPMC Hillman as well as professor of medicine at Pitt.
“Therefore, any positive response should be the result of fecal transmission management.”
Now, the researchers aim to run a larger test and evaluate whether FMT might be just as effective in treating other cancers. The results of this phase II clinical trial were published in the journal Science.