4. The Microbiome Frontier
Immunotherapy doesn’t work for everyone, and researchers are hard at work trying to figure out who will benefit. Some new clues emerged this year, with studies showing that a high-fiber diet and more diverse intestinal bacteria may help checkpoint inhibitors work better, while probiotic supplements can interfere with treatment response. This is part of a growing body of research looking at how the gut microbiome—the community of bacteria and other microbes in the intestines—affects the development, progression and treatment of cancer.
