Microbial metabolites may drive cancer growth or stop it through inflammation and DNA damage

Your gut microbes produce chemicals called metabolites that might influence cancer. Some of these chemicals push cancer forward by causing chronic inflammation, damaging DNA, and sending signals that help tumors grow. Other metabolites work in the opposite direction. They help stop cancer from spreading by calming the immune system, triggering cell death in bad cells, and changing how genes work. This review looked at how these substances affect several types of cancer including colorectal, pancreatic, breast, liver, head and neck, and blood cancers. The findings suggest these chemicals play a big role in whether a tumor grows or stays under control. However, the science is not settled yet. We do not know for sure if these chemicals cause cancer directly or if they just make it worse. More research is needed to confirm these links and to understand exactly how they work. Until then, these metabolites remain an important area of study but are not yet ready to be used as a standard treatment. They could one day help doctors predict how a patient will respond to chemotherapy or immunotherapy, but that is still a future possibility.