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Scientists have now found inspiration in the most unexpected of places- the toilet !!

Cancer is a disease driven by heritable or somatic mutations. This nasty disease begins in the cells during one of the most mundane and everyday processes known as cell division; even a small snag in this process can lead to Cancer. There are many treatment methods for different stages and different kinds of Cancer. At times these methods do not yield the desired results, or at others, might at a later stage cannot help when there is a relapse. Not long ago had we put up an article about how gut bacteria or how an individuals’ microbiome can influence the effectiveness of a drug he is prescribed.

In a parallel sense, scientists have now found inspiration in the same to evaluate the effectiveness of immunotherapy administered to patients with Cancer. The bacterial ecosystem inside our body is being helmed as the answer for how fruitful a Cancer treatment approach can be. It is suspected to help doctors reach three key goals in order to get these immune therapies work better than before: first, to determine who can be helped; second, to tweak either the defences of

the body or consider fecal transplant so that more patients respond positively better to the treatment; and lastly, to prevent the immune system from attacking the gut which is a common side-effect.

All this started with two studies in 2015 detailing how the gut bacteria affects Cancer therapy provided to the patient and their link between the inhabitants of the bowel and the corresponding individuals’ response to therapy. One study in particular showed how fecal transplants or designing the architecture of the gut bacteria specifically for an individual treated with an immune oncology drug kick started the drug’s effectiveness in mice, while the other study focused on how a certain sort of bacteria coupled with a second immune drug, froze the growth of the tumor itself.

The actual study pretty much involves delving into a patient’s stools in search of a better understanding of microbes in the digestive system unique to the individual in order to better understand the therapy methods that could be tailor made to treat them. “Today it’s as common as collecting blood,” says Pierre Belichard, CEO of French biotech Enterome SA.This new direction of research has interested tons of companies and start-ups. Investors ranging from Seventure Partners and Flagship Pioneering Inc. to pharma giants like Bristol-Myers and Johnson & Johnson have pledged more than $125 million to cancer microbiome startups in the past year. The U.S. immune oncology pioneer, late last year signed a deal to work with Seventure’s Enterome, a bioscience company to start two human trials involving gut-bug cancer research by the next year.

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