Study Finds Chemotherapy Disrupts Gut Microbiome in Patients With Breast Cancer

“Chemo brain.” It’s a well-known side effect of chemotherapy. A recent study from researchers at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center and The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute (OSUCCC – James) finds the gut has been implicated in cognitive side effects in humans. Fecal samples, blood and cognitive measures were collected from 77 patients with breast cancer, recruited from The Ohio State University Stefanie Spielman Comprehensive Breast Center, before, during and after chemotherapy.

The study found:

• Chemotherapy induces microbiome disruption and inflammation.
• The resulting microbiome disruption relates to cognitive decline and inflammation.
• Those cognitively impaired have unique chemotherapy-induced microbiome alterations.

DocWire News spoke with Leah Pyter, PhD, associate professor of psychiatry and neuroscience at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, and her colleague, Lauren Otto, of The Ohio State University College of Medicine, about the study and the implications of its findings.