The Medical Advisor

Probiotics are living microorganisms that offer lots of health benefits if consumed in sufficient amounts, such as balancing the “good” bacteria in your digestive system, strengthening immune system, and lowering the risk and severity of diarrhoea. Many studies also linked probiotics with improvement in mental health conditions such as anxiety, depression, and stress. The global gut health is predicted to grow by around 8% annually at least to the end of the decade. There are a number of factors combining to drive growth in the gut and digestive health market. One is that consumers are increasingly aware of the importance of gut health and comfort, and that they can, to some extent, manage that themselves through food choices and supplements. This is linked to the fact that global populations are ageing, and more and more people are living with chronic gastric disorders. At the same time, scientists are gaining better understanding of both the importance of the gut (microbiome) on huma...

Yes — the gut bacterium Akkermansia muciniphila is increasingly recognized as a biomarker predicting response to cancer immunotherapy. This is one of the most important discoveries in microbiome-oncology in the past decade. Below is a clear scientific overview of what the research shows. Patients with Akkermansia respond better to checkpoint inhibitors Multiple studies have shown that cancer patients whose gut microbiome contains Akkermansia respond better to immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) such as anti-PD-1 or anti-PD-L1 therapies. In a clinical cohort of non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients: Higher levels of Akkermansia were associated with disease stabilization or partial response Patients without the bacterium were more likely to have disease progression during immunotherapy ( PubMed ). Another analysis found that  intestinal Akkermansia presence predicted clinical response to PD-1 blockade  in advanced lung cancer patients ( Biocodex Microbiota Institute )....