Although microbiome involvement in the development of breast cancer is well known, there have been few cases using the microbiome in the primary treatment of patients with breast cancer. Using prebiotics in patients with breast cancer, so improving the microbiome and serum tests of patients was confirmed.
Additional prebiotics were used to treat patients diagnosed with breast cancer histologically for 12 weeks for after surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation treatment. The primary endpoint was an improvement in the microbiome via changing blood glucose and blood lipid tests, which are known risk factors for breast cancer, in serum tests performed after treatment. Serum, stool, and urine tests were performed before ingestion of prebiotics and in the same manner after ingestion. The microbiome was analyzed in serum, feces, fecal extracellular vesicles, and urine.
Of the 60 patients screened, 18 were enrolled according to the exclusion criteria. After taking prebiotics in patients with breast cancer, 9 patients took them completely, excluding patients who could not take the prebiotics to the end or those who stopped due to side effects. These patients showed improvement in ANC (absolute neutrophil count), fasting glucose level, and LDL (low-density lipoprotein) cholesterol. Most side effects were mild and were mainly gastrointestinal symptoms such as constipation or indigestion. The microbiome that showed changes after prebiotics administration differed in feces, extracellular vesicles in feces, urine, and serum, but the bacteria that showed the most changes were
Oral administration of prebiotics is thought to reduce the risk of recurrence by improving risk factors in patients whose breast cancer has resolved after standard treatment surgery, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy. The observed side effects of prebiotics (gastrointestinal symptoms) are not severe but should be improved. If these are improved, prebiotics can be used additionally for the treatment of patients with breast cancer.
CRIS number, PRE20230213-007.
The authors.
This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korea government (MSIT) (NRF-2021R1A2C1014094).
All authors have declared no conflicts of interest.