THE ONCOMICROBIOME: MOLECULAR CROSSTALK AND EMERGING THERAPEUTIC FRONTIERS IN CANCER

ABSTRACTThe human microbiome has emerged as a critical regulator of cancer initiation, progression,metastasis, and therapeutic response. Advances in metagenomics and molecular biology havedemonstrated that microbial communities residing in the gut and tumor microenvironmentinfluence carcinogenesis through inflammation, immune modulation, metabolic alteration,and genotoxicity. Dysbiosis, defined as an imbalance in microbial composition, has beenstrongly associated with colorectal, gastric, breast, pancreatic, lung, and liver cancers. Certainmicrobial species such as Helicobacter pylori, Fusobacterium nucleatum, and Bacteroidesfragilis contribute to tumour progression by activating oncogenic signalling pathways,suppressing host immunity, and producing carcinogenic metabolites. Furthermore, themicrobiome significantly affects responses to chemotherapy and immunotherapy, therebyinfluencing patient outcomes. Recent therapeutic strategies including probiotics, prebiotics,synbiotics, and faecal microbiota transplantation have shown promise in modulatingmicrobial composition to improve cancer treatment efficacy. This review summarizes currentknowledge regarding the role of the microbiome in cancer progression, underlying molecularmechanisms, interactions with anticancer therapies, and future therapeutic opportunities.