Human Microbiome Modulation: A Potential Therapeutic Strategy for Pancreatic Cancer

Abstract

Pancreatic cancer is a disorder that affects the biochemical and metabolic physiology of pancreas. It is the most intractable and lethal of all GI malignancies. Early metastatic spread and medication resistance restrict its prognosis. Because of the severe phase of the illness when diagnosed, only a minority of patients (20%) qualify for surgical resection. Therefore, there is a pressing need to find new alternative treatments for pancreatic cancer. Ten to twenty percent of human malignancies are linked to microbes, which are capable of causing carcinogenesis by inducing inflammation, evading immune destruction, and deregulating host genome stability prior to cancer development. A microbiome is an assembly of microbes and their genetic material found in a specific environment. Symbiotic relationships exist between the microbiome and its human hosts on the skin and, to a greater extent, in the gut. Many diseases, including pancreatic cancer, can be caused by a disturbance in the balance. In the human body, the microbiome provides numerous benefits to the host as it contributes to nutritional, metabolic, and immunological regulation. However, the tumorigenic pathway may be affected by the dysbiotic changes of the human microbiome, resulting in the development of pancreatic cancer. Besides affecting the tumour’s aggressiveness, this dysbiosis also has an effect on the microenvironment. It is possible to modify the composition of the gut microbiome and re-establishes its balance by the use of prebiotics, probiotics, next-generation probiotics, postbiotics, synbiotics, and faecal microbiota transfer. This chapter focuses on the relationship between human microbiome and pancreatic cancer, with an emphasis on current available literature evidence supporting the exploration of microbiome-based treatments and therapies to prevent and control pancreatic cancer.