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At Mayo Clinic’s Center for Individualized Medicine, researchers are uncovering groundbreaking insights into cancer treatment by analyzing stool samples, which offer a wealth of information about the gut microbiome — a complex ecosystem of bacteria, fungi, and viruses. This innovative work highlights the microbiome’s critical role in health, influencing both the body’s response to cancer and the effectiveness of treatments.
A key part of this effort is the Oncobiome Project, an initiative of the center’s Microbiomics Program. By collecting stool samples from over 2,000 cancer patients across Mayo Clinic campuses, researchers are identifying microbial patterns that may predict treatment outcomes.
What sets the Oncobiome project apart is its strategic design, which bridges research and clinical practice. The findings aim to pave the way for personalized cancer care, enabling tailored treatments based on a patient’s unique microbiome and genetic profile.
According to Purna Kashyap, M.B.B.S., the Bernard and Edith Waterman Director of the Mayo Clinic Microbiomics Program, the team is exploring whether microbiome composition correlates with specific cancers and can predict survival outcomes or responses to immunotherapy. Beyond cancer, the research integrates additional "omics" like genomics and metabolomics to gain deeper insights into how genetics, environment, and gut microbes collectively impact health.
Early findings are promising, offering potential not only to refine cancer therapies but also to uncover the microbiome’s broader influence on conditions like gut-brain disorders, rheumatoid arthritis, and infections. The work reflects Mayo Clinic’s commitment to translating scientific discoveries into impactful treatments, advancing the future of individualized medicine.
Original article published in Mayo Clinic News Network
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