The effect of the microbiota on the efficacy and side effects of radiotherapy

PI: Jacopo Iacovacci

The human microbiota is increasingly recognised as a key modulator of treatment response and toxicity in cancer therapies.  

This line of research investigates in parallel the role of the oral microbiota in the treatment efficacy and side effects of head-and-neck cancer patients, as well as the impact of the intestinal microbiota on radio-induced gastrointestinal toxicity in prostate cancer patients. 

By leveraging longitudinal clinical data and microbiome data, causal inference approaches will be undertaken to disentangle complex microbiota-host-radiotherapy interactions and identify microbiota features that influence treatment outcomes and side effects beyond correlative associations.  

To enable a microbiota-based risk stratification and inform treatment decisions in a patient-specific fashion, the project will establish microbiota biomarkers and machine learning-based personalised predictive models by integrating microbiome, dosimetric, and clinical data. 

Finally, pre-clinical validation using organ-on-chip technology to model host-microbiota interactions under radiotherapy in a controlled system will bridge those results to clinical applications, paving the way for microbiota-guided radiotherapy.