- Fecal transplants, consisting of poop and microbes, can be used to treat melanoma.
- The procedure involves transplanting healthy shit into the intestines of a skin cancer patient.
- A study suggests that these transplants may help patients respond better to immunotherapy.
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Fecal transplants are being touted as a promising new treatment for patients with a serious form of skin cancer, according to research seen by The Guardian.
The transplants, which consist of shit and microbes, can be used to help those suffering from melanoma.
The procedure involves transplanting feces from a healthy donor into the intestines of a melanoma patient, the article reads.
This in turn can help the patient respond better to immunotherapy, the research suggests.
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Melanoma, the most severe form of skin cancer, often requires different types of immunotherapy for treatment.
There are indications from this study that the chance of successful treatment with immunotherapy through fecal transplants may be increased.
In the study, a healthy stool was taken from seven people who responded positively to the immunotherapy drug pembrolizumab. The feces were then transplanted into the intestines of 15 melanoma patients.
After receiving the transplant, the pembrolizumab was prescribed every three weeks. They were then monitored over a period of a year, reports The Guardian.
The research showed that six of the patients responded positively to the drugs, and three of them saw a large decrease or total eradication of skin cancer.
Among all the patients, there were promising signs of an increased survival time. The median survival time has been increased from seven months to 14 months, the article reads.
Although the results offer hope for the treatment of melanoma patients, the study was done on only a small number of patients.
The authors of the study told The Guardian that they hope to conduct the trials on a large group of melanoma patients and to test the impact of fecal transplants on other cancers.