Gut bacteria enhance cancer immunotherapy in mouse study

Roughly one in five cancer patients benefit from immunotherapy—a treatment that harnesses the immune system to fight cancer. Such an approach to beating cancer has seen significant success in lung cancer and melanoma, among others. Optimistic about its potential, researchers are exploring strategies to improve immunotherapy for cancers that don’t respond well to the treatment, with the hope of benefiting more patients. Now, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found, in mice, that a strain of gut bacteria—Ruminococcus gnavus—can enhance the effects of cancer immunotherapy. Read More