Probiotics-based Anticancer Immunity in Pancreatic Cancer

Pancreatic cancer is still one of the malignancies with a very poor prognosis worldwide. In the recent past, the gut microbiota has been shown to have a role in pancreatic cancer patients’ survival and response to the therapy. Out of the possible mechanisms, the role of gut microbiota in shaping the microbial composition of pancreatic tumor and its effect on intra-tumor immune modulation has emerged as a potential therapeutic strategy. Modulation of gut microbiota for targeting pancreatic cancer initiation, progression and therapy could be achieved through different processes like treatment through faecal microbiota transplantation (FMT), antibiotics, prebiotics, probiotics, and synbiotics. In the recent past, various clinical and experimental pieces of evidence have demonstrated the efficacy of probiotics in cancer prevention, treatment and management. In this chapter, efforts have been directed towards summarizing the prospects and challenges associated with the use of probiotics and probiotics-derived products against pancreatic cancer. 

Keywords: Anticancer activity, Fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT), Immunomodulation, Mechanism of action, Pancreatic cancer, Probiotics, Probiotic derived products.