Fecal Transplant Transformed Melanoma Non-Responders to Immunotherapy Into Responders

A news study showed that fecal transplant could transform patients with advanced melanoma who are non-responders to immunotherapy into responders. Non-responders to immunotherapy are said to have a failure rate of 40% for melanoma.

Researchers at UPMC Hillman Cancer Center and the National Cancer Institute (NCI) published the phase II clinical trial results in the journal Science.

Fecal Transplant Boosts Cancer Patients' Response to Immunotherapy

According to Medical Xpress, the team of researchers from UPMC Hillman conducted fecal microbiota transplants (FMT) ad anti-PD-1 immunotherapy to non-responders and tracked how they would respond.

Meanwhile, researchers from NCI analyzed the microbiome samples from these patients to understand how FMT could boost the non-responders' response to immunotherapy.

Study co-lead author and oncologist Dr. Diwakar Davar said that FMT is a means to an end. They know that the composition of gut bacteria could change the response to immunotherapy. Fecal transplant helps test microbiomes' trillions to see if having good bacteria could make more people sensitive to PD-1 inhibitors.

As the first study to test this in humans, the researchers collected fecal samples from patients who responded positively to anti-PD-1 immunotherapy and tested possible pathogens before giving them to non-responders. Then they gave the patients the anti-PD-1 drug pembrolizumab.

The researchers found that it worked. They successfully turned the non-responders to immunotherapy into responders. About six out of 15 advanced melanoma patients showed tumor reduction and disease stabilization after receiving the combined FMT and anti-PF-1 treatment.

"The likelihood that the patients treated in this trial would spontaneously respond to the second administration of anti-PD-1 immunotherapy is very low," said study co-senior author and cancer immunologist Dr. Hassane Zarour. "So, any positive response should be attributable to the administration of fecal transplant."

Furthermore, the medical news outlet reported that analysis of the microbiome samples taken from FMT recipients revealed immunologic changes in their blood and tumor sites. This could mean that FMT caused an increase in immune cell activation in responders and increased immunosuppression for those non-responders.

The researchers hope to run a larger trial on melanoma patients and evaluate the effectiveness of FMT to other types of cancers. Ultimately, their goal is to create pills that contain helpful microbiomes in replacement to FMT to boost immunotherapy, although they admitted that this could take more years to realize.

Fecal Transplant Transforms Lives

According to the Johns Hopkins Medicine website, fecal transplant or bacteriotherapy is the process of transferring stool from a healthy donor to the gastrointestinal tract of people who suffer recurring C. difficile colitis, which is an antibiotic complication associated with diarrhea, abdominal cramping, and fever.

Last year, Science Times reported that a 47-year-old Belgian man was cured of the auto-brewery syndrome (ABS), a condition wherein the person's body automatically turns carbohydrates into booze after undergoing fecal transplantation.

He was first advised to maintain a low-carb diet but seeing it was not effective, the fecal transplant was seen as the best next option.

The man instantly became better after the transplant, who reported that he no longer experience the symptoms of his former disorder even 34 months have already passed after his fecal transplant.

Check out more news and information on Gut Microbiome and Cancer on Science Times.