Unexpected benefits of microbiota

Cancer Cachexia is a condition of muscle wasting seen in cancer that contributes to mortality. On the basis of previously reported connections between gut microbiota and cachexia, de Clercq et al. transplanted fecal microbiota from healthy obese donors to patients with cancer cachexia and compared their outcomes with those of patients receiving autologous microbiota. Unexpectedly, the allogeneic transplantations had no effect on cachexia but they did improve patients' responses to chemotherapy and overall survival. The findings are intriguing but also raise numerous questions about the specific effects of the microbiota: There were no nonobese donor controls, so it is possible that any allogeneic microbiota transplantation might be beneficial. Clin. Cancer Res. 10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-20-4918 (2021).