Intratumoral microbiota in cancer: molecular mechanism and therapeutic strategies - PubMed
3 hours ago
- #Cancer Microbiome
- #Tumor Microenvironment
- #Therapeutic Strategies
- Recent spatially resolved, multi-omic, and functional studies have advanced understanding of intratumoral microbiota (ITM), moving from detection to analyzing microbial localization and host-cell interactions in cancer phenotypes and therapy outcomes.
- ITM directly affects genomic stability, signaling pathways, metabolism, and cellular plasticity in cancer cells, and indirectly shapes tumor evolution through impacts on immune and stromal components in the tumor microenvironment (TME).
- ITM plays a role in anticancer therapy, with mechanisms distinguished between direct tumor evidence and gut microbiota-driven systemic effects.
- Emerging strategies to target or exploit ITM include antibiotics, phage strategy, engineered strategy, and related microbiota-modulating interventions.
- Major challenges include low microbial biomass, contamination, limited spatial resolution, and insufficient in vivo functional validation.
- ITM is a context-dependent component of tumor ecosystems with potential relevance to tumor progression, therapy stratification, and biomarker development.