The Gut Microbiome's Response to Immunotherapy for Lung Cancer
Posted: Tuesday, July 21, 2020
The gut microbiome and its metabolic pathways appear to play a significant role in affecting patients’ responses to immunotherapy for non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Andrea Botticelli, MD, PhD, of Sapienza University, Rome, and colleagues published their findings on gut metabolomics profiling in this patient population in the Journal of Transitional Medicine.
“In our study, short chain fatty acids mainly characterize the gut microbiota metabolome of [long responding] subjects to immune therapy, and therefore it can be hypothesized that these molecules might be considered as [a] biomarker of responsiveness,” concluded the authors.
The research team characterized the microbiome of 11 patients with NSCLC who were all treated with nivolumab as second-line treatment. Ten of these patients had squamous cell carcinoma, and one had adenocarcinoma. Metabolomic profiling analysis was performed using gas chromatography solid-phase microextraction and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy.
Of the patients included in the study, four presented with early disease progression, whereas the remaining seven presented with disease progression after 12 months. The microbiota of patients who had longer responses to nivolumab were most characterized by short chain fatty acids (butyric, valeric, acetic, and propionic), amino acids (lysine), and nicotinic acid. In comparison, patients who had early tumor regression when treated with nivolumab had microbiomes that were mainly represented by alkanes (tridecane, dodecane), ketones (2-pentone, 2-octanon), aldehydes (benzenacetaldehyde), and p-cresol. In addition, the levels of tridecane could only be measured in the metabolome of patients with early disease progression, and they were absent in those who had a longer response.
“However,” the investigators concluded, “it is necessary to pursue larger follow-up clinical studies, in order to provide more representative data sets.”
Disclosure: For full disclosures of the study authors, visit translational-medicine.biomedcentral.com.
