The medication is really taking care of business.
A pair of new Canadian clinical trials show poop pills can reduce the toxic side effects of cancer medications and even support patient response to immunotherapy.
Also known as “crapsules,” fecal microbiota transplant (FMT) pills contain freeze-dried fecal matter, and according to new research published in Nature Medicine, popping poo may dramatically improve cancer treatment.
In the first phase of the latest research round, scientists at the London Health Sciences Centre Research Institute (LHSCRI) and the Lawson Research Institute sought to determine whether FMT was safe when combined with an immunotherapy drug used to treat kidney cancer.
Analyzing data from 20 patients, the team found that customized FMT may help relieve some of the severe side effects associated with immunotherapy.
“Standard treatment for advanced kidney cancer often includes an immunotherapy drug that helps the patient’s immune system tackle cancer cells,” said Saman Maleki, a scientist at LHSCRI.
“But, unfortunately, the treatment frequently leads to colitis and diarrhea, sometimes so severe that a patient must stop life-sustaining treatment early. If we can reduce toxic side effects and help patients complete their treatment, that will be a game-changer.”
The second phase, led by researchers at the Centre de recherche du Centre hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal (CRCHUM), evaluated whether FMT could bolster the response to immunotherapy in patients with lung cancer and melanoma.
Researchers found that after FMT treatment, 80% of lung cancer patients responded to immunotherapy, compared with 39% to 45% among those treated with immunotherapy alone.
And 75% of melanoma patients who received FMT responded positively to treatment, compared with only 50% to 58% who received immunotherapy alone.
“Our clinical trial demonstrated that fecal microbiota transplantation could improve the efficacy of immunotherapy in patients with lung cancer and melanoma,” said Dr. Arielle Elkrief, co-principal investigator and a physician scientist at CRCHUM.
Elkrief notes that FMT’s efficacy may be due in part to its ability to eliminate harmful bacteria, suggesting that these results could open the door to personalized microbiome therapies.
Both studies incorporated FMT capsules produced by Lawson in London, Ontario. These crapsules come from healthy donor stools and, when ingested, can help restore the gut microbiome.
“To use FMT to reduce drug toxicity and improve patients’ quality of life while possibly enhancing their clinical response to cancer treatment is tremendous, and it has never been done in treating kidney cancer before this,” said the study authors.
Now, FMT studies are underway to determine if the treatment can help patients with pancreatic and triple-negative breast cancer.
“Our hope is that our research will one day help people with cancer live longer while reducing the harmful side effects of treatment,” concluded study author Dr. Ricardo Fernandes.
Though it’s unconventional, FMT isn’t exactly new — it’s been used in humans since 1958, and in animals for about 100 years.
In 2022, the Food and Drug Administration approved FMT to treat potentially deadly infections caused by Clostridium difficile (C. diff), a bacterium that can spur fevers, diarrhea and cramping.
The therapy has also been investigated for a range of disorders, including ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease — it’s even been tried as an “anti-aging” treatment.
