Cell Death Differ: Intestinal microflora affects the clinical outcome and treatment side effects of early breast cancer

Breast cancer (BC) is the leading cause of cancer and the second leading cause of death among women.
In addition to aging and genetic factors, environmental factors (diet, alcohol intake, endocrine disruptors, sedentary life>

Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) refers to breast cancer whose immunohistochemical examination results are negative for estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR) and the proto-oncogene Her2.
Previous studies have shown that TNBC patients with PDL-1 expression mediated by immune checkpoint inhibitors have clinical benefit to chemotherapy .

Although there is increasing evidence that specific gut microbiota can reduce systemic inflammation and the tumor microenvironment of patients receiving immunotherapy.
However, there is no relevant data on the influence of intestinal flora on cancer immune response in TNBC.

Metagenomics analysis of stool samples from BC patients and healthy volunteers

The study used shotgun metagenomics technology to identify the fecal microbiota composition of 121 samples from a total of 76 early-stage BC patients, of which 45 patients had pre- and post-chemotherapy pairs.
This CANTO prospective study aims to document side effects related to the clinical management of BC .

Researchers mainly analyzed the relationship between baseline or post-chemotherapy stool microbiota and plasma metabolomics and the prognosis of BC patients and the side effects caused by treatment.

Chemotherapy significantly affects fecal microbiome composition in paired subgroup analysis

The results show that, compared with healthy individuals, excessive specific intestinal microbes can have a negative impact on the prognosis of BC patients, which can be adjusted by chemotherapy, and may affect the weight gain and neurological side effects of BC patients after treatment.