Fecal microbiome transplantation successfully "cures" the side effects of immunotherapy.

Colitis is the second most common side effect associated with immunoospha inhibitors, which occur in up to 40% of patients.
, a new study published in the journal Nature Medicine confirms for the first time that fecal microbiome transplantation (FMT) can cure such side effects.
immune checkpoint inhibitors (immune checkpoint inhibitors), represented by PD-1/PD-L1 antibodies, are the most successful cancer immunotherapy and have been shown to produce a long-lasting response in a wide range of cancer patients.
however, such drugs can also cause worrying toxic effects, such as colitis.
when ICIs treatment causes severe colitis, according to guidelines, patients need to stop treatment until colitis is eased. in the
's newly published study, two patients who developed severe colitis from ICIs treatment were cured after being treated with fecal microbioa transplantation, FMT, a intestinal bacteria transplanted from a healthy donor.
the two patients were treated at the MD Anderson Cancer Research Center between June 2017 and January 2018.
the first patient recovered from colitis within two weeks of receiving an FMT treatment.
second patient experienced a partial relapse after the first FMT treatment, and after the second FMT treatment, the condition was completely eliminated.
endoscopy showed significant improvement in inflammation and ulceration in both patients after FMT treatment.
At the same time, the analysis of the patient's feces before and after FMT treatment showed that after FMT treatment, new strains appeared in the patient's body, some of which had the effect of reducing inflammation. Dr Yinghong Wang, who led the study
, said: "Our findings show that FMT is a safe, fast and long-lasting treatment, so it should be further assessed as a first-line treatment for ICI-related colitis.
," however, the authors acknowledge that the study has significant limitations because of its small sample size.
they plan to conduct clinical trials to investigate how effective it is to treat ICI-related colitis with FMT compared to standard immunosuppressive therapy.
, since previous studies have found that gut microbes affect patients' responses to cancer immunotherapy, scientists believe it is necessary to investigate further the "effects of the microbiome on immunotherapy outcomes and side effects."
Source: Biological Exploration.