The role of the microbiome in the etiology and treatment of neoplastic diseases

Experimental data on the role of the microbiome in the onset and progression of inflammatory diseases and cancer have been accumulated for years. An important milestone in this respect was the discovery that APC mutant mice in sterile conditions do not develop colon cancer of the FAP type. The direct role of the Enterobacteriaceae and Fusobacteriaceae bacterial families were also shown in the pathomechanism of the same experimental model. The toxic effect of chemotherapy on the gut flora has been well documented, but it may very well be that this putative side effect is part of the efficacy, primarily in the case of adjuvant chemotherapy. The first reproducible methods of microbiome molecular diagnostics are already available today. In addition to standard large clinical studies, we can increasingly rely on evidence of molecular pathomechanism and „real-world” clinical experience in the clinical interpretation of the microbiome. The overview summarizes the results of the field research and its translation possibilities in terms of routine clinical practice.