Gut Microbiome and Immunotherapy Resistance

Continuous immunosurveillance processes have the capacity to detect mutated cells before they become cancerous and spread. However, constantly mutating cells can evade the immune system by manipulating the immune system, hence immunotherapy has been developed to heighten the immune response and the ability to detect and destroy cancer cells. The current understanding of the contribution of the gut microbiome in disease and its immunomodulatory effect has provided a new avenue for potential novel cancer therapeutic strategies. The diversity and composition of the microbiome have been shown to significantly affect the patient’s response to immunotherapy. This chapter will discuss the mechanisms that microbiomes use to modulate immune responses thus affecting immunotherapeutic responses. The chapter will explore the involvement of the microbiome and its secreted molecules in immunotherapy resistance and potential efforts to target the microbiome to enhance therapeutic responses.