Exploiting dietary fibre and the gut microbiota in pelvic radiotherapy patients.

ABSTRACT: With an ageing population, there is an urgent need to find alternatives to current standard-of-care chemoradiation schedules in the treatment of pelvic malignancies. The gut microbiota may be exploitable, having shown a valuable role in improving patient outcomes in anticancer immunotherapy. These bacteria feed on dietary fibres, which reach the large intestine intact, resulting in the production of beneficial metabolites, including short-chain fatty acids. The gut microbiota can impact radiotherapy (RT) treatment responses and itself be altered by the radiation. Evidence is emerging that manipulation of the gut microbiota by dietary fibre supplementation can improve tumour responses and reduce normal tissue side effects following RT, although data on tumour response are limited to date. B

SUBMITTER: Eaton SE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9727022 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature