Study, Antibiotics May Worsen Melanoma Cancer

According to a new study conducted by researchers at Emory University in Atlanta, the use of antibiotics in mice with malignant melanoma, which is an aggressive form of skin cancer, has accelerated their metastatic bone growth.

This happened because the antibiotic drugs depleted the intestinal flora of mice and weakened their immune responses. The findings of the study highlight the importance of the gut microbiome in complete health and suggest that doctors should properly weigh the gastrointestinal effects, when they use antibiotic therapies while treating canecr and several other diseases.

Researchers said any disease or therapy that harms the gut microbiome can have a negative impact on their health. They added that in their study they found the gut microbiome restrains the progression of melanoma bone lesions in mice by the expansion of intestinal natural-killer (NK) cells and by enhancing their migration to the tumor site.

Using oral antibiotics has depleted the gut microbiome and decreased the population of Th1 cells and NK cells. This made the mice more vulnerable to developing tumors. The study revealed the mechanism for the growth of melanoma. The study strongly indicates that microbiome changes induced by the antibiotics might have negative clinical consequences not only for melanoma, but for several other diseases as well.