Microbiome and malignancy.
Current knowledge is insufficient to explain why only a proportion of individuals exposed to environmental carcinogens or carrying a genetic predisposition to cancer develop disease. Clearly, other factors must be important, and one such element that has recently received attention is the human microbiome, the residential microbes including Bacteria, Archaea, Eukaryotes, and viruses that colonize humans. Here, we review principles and paradigms of microbiome-related malignancy, as illustrated by three specific microbial-host interactions. We review the effects of the microbiota on local and adjacent neoplasia, present the estrobolome model of distant effects, and discuss the complex interactions with a latent virus leading to malignancy. These are separate facets of a complex biology interfacing all the microbial species we harbor from birth onward toward early reproductive success and eventual senescence.
Department of Medicine, New York University Langone Medical Center, New York University, New York, NY 10016, USA. claudia.plottel@nyumc.org
Claudia S
CS
Plottel
Martin J
MJ
Blaser
D001105:Archaea / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000378:metabolism; D001419:Bacteria / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000378:metabolism; D002273:Carcinogens / Q000378:metabolism; D056890:Eukaryota / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D054892:Metagenome; D056265:Microbial Interactions; D008954:Models, Biological; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology*
D002273:Carcinogens