TY - JOUR JO - Central European Journal of Immunology SN - 1426-3912 VL - 45 IS - 4 PY - 2020 ID - Kaźmierczak-Siedlecka2020 TI - Gastrointestinal cancers: the role of microbiota in carcinogenesis and the role of probiotics and microbiota in anti-cancer therapy efficacy AB - The gut epithelium is a habitat of a variety of microorganisms, including bacteria, fungi, viruses and Archaea. With the advent of sophisticated molecular techniques and bioinformatics tools, more information on the composition and thus function of gut microbiota was revealed. The gut microbiota as an integral part of the intestinal barrier has been shown to be involved in shaping the mucosal innate and adaptive immune response and to provide protection against pathogens. Consequently, a set of biochemical signals exchanged within microbes and communication between the microbiota and the host have opened a new way of thinking about cancer biology. Probiotics are living organisms which administered in adequate amounts may bring health benefits and have the potential to be an integral part of the prevention/treatment strategies in clinical approaches. Here we provide a comprehensive review of data linking gut microbiota to cancer pathogenesis and its clinical course. We focus on gastrointestinal cancers, such as gastric, colorectal, pancreatic and liver cancer. AU - Kaźmierczak-Siedlecka, Karolina AU - Ruszkowski, Jakub AU - Skonieczna-Żydecka, Karolina AU - Jędrzejczak, Jakub AU - Folwarski, Marcin AU - Makarewicz, Wojciech SP - 476 EP - 487 DA - 2020 DO - 10.5114/ceji.2020.103353 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.5114/ceji.2020.103353 ER -