A Silent Saboteur of Immunotherapy: Antibiotic Use and Its Impact on Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors Efficacy, a Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Recent Studies - PubMed
5 hours ago
- #immunotherapy
- #microbiome
- #antibiotics
- Antibiotic use (ABT) negatively impacts the efficacy of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) in treating solid tumors.
- A systematic review and meta-analysis of 15 studies involving 52,489 patients found ABT exposure associated with worse overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS).
- The gut microbiota, which plays a role in antitumor immunity, is disrupted by ABT, potentially impairing ICI effectiveness.
- In non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), ABT exposure was consistently linked to inferior PFS and reduced OS.
- The findings highlight the need for cautious antibiotic stewardship in patients receiving ICIs and call for further research with microbiome profiling and standardized ABT exposure assessment.