HAMBURG, Germany — The human microbiome comprises 39 to 44 billion microbes. That is ten times more than the number of cells in our body. Hendrik Poeck, MD, managing senior physician of internal medicine at the University Hospital Regensburg, illustrated this point at the annual meeting of the German Society for Hematology and Medical Oncology 2023. If the gut microbiome falls out of balance, then "intestinal dysbiosis potentially poses a risk for the pathogenesis of local and systemic diseases," explained Poeck.
Cancers and their therapies can also be influenced in this way. "Microbial diversity affects whether a tumor grows, whether it leads to inflammation, immune escape mechanisms or genomic instability, or whether therapeutic resistances develop," said Poeck.
Microbial diversity could be beneficial for cancer therapy, too. The composition of the microbiome varies significantly from host to host and can mutate. These properties make it a target for precision microbiotics, which involves using the gut microbiome as a biomarker to predict various physical reactions and to develop individualized diets.
Microbiome and Pathogenesis
The body's microbiome fulfills a barrier function, especially where the body is exposed to an external environment: at the epidermis and the internal mucous membranes, in the gastrointestinal tract, and in the lungs, chest, and urogenital system.
