Fecal microbiota transplant promotes response in immunotherapy-refractory melanoma patients

• DOI: 10.1126/science.abb5920
• Publication Date: 2020-12-10T20:14:27Z
• Authors: Erez N. Baruch; Ilan Youngster; Guy Ben-Betzalel; Rona Ortenberg; Adi Lahat; Lior Katz; Katerina Adler; Daniela Dick-Necula; Stephen Raskin; Naamah Bloch; Daniil Rotin; Liat Anafi; Camila Avivi; Jenny Melnichenko; Yael Steinberg-Si...; Ronac Mamtani; Hagit Harati; Nethanel Asher; Ronnie Shapira-Fr...; Tal Brosh-Nissimov; Yael Eshet; Shira Ben-Simon; Oren Ziv; Md Abdul Wadud Khan; Moran Amit; Nadim J. Ajami; Iris Barshack; Jacob Schachter; Jennifer A. Wargo; Omry Koren; Gal Markel; Ben Boursi
• Keywords: Adult; Male; 0301 basic medicine; 0303 health sciences; Skin Neoplasms; Programmed Cell Death 1 Receptor; CD8-Positive T-Lymphocytes; Fecal Microbiota Transplantation; Middle Aged; 7. Clean energy; Gastrointestinal Microbiome; 3. Good health; 03 medical and health sciences; Antineoplastic Agents, Immunological; Lymphocytes, Tumor-Infiltrating; Nivolumab; Tumor Microenvironment; Humans; Female; Immunotherapy; Intestinal Mucosa; Transcriptome; Melanoma

New fecal microbiota for cancer patients

The composition of the gut microbiome influences the response of cancer patients to immunotherapies. Baruch et al. and Davar et al. report first-in-human clinical trials to test whether fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) can affect how metastatic melanoma patients respond to anti–PD-1 immunotherapy (see the Perspective by Woelk and Snyder). Both studies observed evidence of clinical benefit in a subset of treated patients. This included increased abundance of taxa previously shown to be associated with response to anti–PD-1, increased CD8 + T cell activation, and decreased frequency of interleukin-8–expressing myeloid cells, which are involved in immunosuppression. These studies provide proof-of-concept evidence for the ability of FMT to affect immunotherapy response in cancer patients.

Science , this issue p. 602 , p. 595 ; see also p. 573