Understanding Gut Microbiome in Lung Cancer Treatment

What if your lung cancer doctor could get a huge amount of information about your health, how you might respond to different treatments, and possibly even be able to tell you the best diet for your specific needs, all based on a simple test that involves no needles, no surgery, no special preparation, just a small sample… of your stool. That’s the potential of studying the gut microbiome. Find out why some of LCFA’s Young Investigators are so excited about including the gut microbiome in the fight against lung cancer.

Guests

Dr. Jarushka Naidoo Dr. Daniel Spakowicz Dr. Zoltan Loinai

Dr. David Carbone, The Ohio State University

Show Notes | Transcription

The immune effect of the microbiome on lung cancer may be due to specific compositions of both lung and gut microbiomes. Three of LCFA’s Young Investigator grant recipients are continuing this study of gut microbiome and lung cancer, Dr. Jarushka Naidoo, Dr. Daniel Spakowicz, and Dr. Zoltan Lohinai.

Discovering whether a patient’s gut health plays a role in determining the benefits – or, conversely, the harm – of immunotherapy treatment. Until now, there has been scant research connecting gut health with both cancer diagnoses and treatment protocols.

The LCFA Young Investigator Grants are designed to help researchers look at lung cancer in new and creative ways, always with an eye toward finding better treatments that help people live longer and healthier lives.Familiarizing the practicing clinician with the experimental methods used to generate the information that will likely impact the field of lung cancer, helping to understand gut microbiome in lung cancer treatment.

As Dr. Daniel Spakowicz says, “in general, collecting somebody’s poop before they start a treatment is not a commonly done practice right now, and it tends to be sort of icky to some people. And that’s the essence of what we want to change.”